Fighting for Rachel
by ocfanatic2013
Summary: Santana and Quinn both want and fight each other for Rachel, who can't choose between them. Pairings: Faberry, mostly Pezberry
1. Chapter 1

Santana Lopez stood at her locker with her best friend Brittany Pierce who was at her own locker, right next to Santana's. Both girls were touching up their makeup in the mirrors that they had on the inside of their locker doors. To hell with getting the right books for the next class, as Cheerios they had to look hot. Santana and Brittany had met on the first day of daycare. Santana had been pouring sand from the sandbox down some random kid's shorts (hey, even _she _could admit that she'd been a bitch since birth) when out of the corner of her eye, she saw some other kid picking on a blonde girl. Something about the young blonde intrigued Santana and when the girl began crying, Santana abandoned her task at hand and walked over to see if the blonde was all right. After pushing the other kid out of the way, Santana knelt down to where the girl was sitting and introduced herself to the blonde. Since then, they'd been inseparable and the roles had yet to change. Santana was the tough one and was alway protecting Brittany from jerks. Brittany may not have been the smartest girl in the world, but she had a kind heart and she meant well when she said things that didn't quite make sense to anyone else. Over the years, Santana had become fluent in 'Brittany' speak, but she had grown tired of having to translate for other people, so she just let them guess. But if someone was stupid enough to make insult Brittany, make fun of her, or make her cry, all hell broke loose. Santana usually flipped out on the person, cussing them out in both English _and _Spanish before kicking their asses.

Down the hall, Quinn Fabray stood at her locker, alone. As head Cheerio, she didn't need anyone around to make her feel like she was worth something. Everyone knew who she was. She was the girl that all the guys wanted and all the girls wanted to be. She was _the _girl. She was on top. And she fucking loved that feeling. She loved the way it felt having stares of wanting from guys and jealousy from girls as she walked down the hall. No one was ever going to take that feeling from, especially not Santana. The girl had already had a taste of the power that the head cheerleader position had and she liked it too fucking much. Quinn wasn't going to let Santana get that much power again. However, although Quinn did love her power, she knew that she would give it up in a heartbeat for the person she'd recently been crushing on. Unfortunately, it was yet another thing she'd have to fight Santana for, as the newest thing that had put a riff in their friendship (aside from Quinn telling Coach Sylvester about Santana's boob job) was when they'd both admitted that they liked the same person. Quinn wasn't going to let Santana get as close to permanently having this one thing that Quinn wanted as she had with the head Cheerio position and power. Supposedly, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany were all best friends. However, everyone knew that Santana and Quinn would do whatever it took to be number one, even if it meant destroying the other one. And while Brittany loved Quinn, she was extremely loyal to Santana so whenever Santana and Quinn were fighting, Quinn was the odd one out because Brittany would stick with Santana, leaving Quinn alone.

It had all started when the two were hanging out at Santana's house. Brittany had had to go to a doctor's appointment, so it was just the two of them that day. Quinn could tell something was bothering the Latina, but didn't press the subject. Finally, it seemed like Santana couldn't take it anymore and just let it out.

_FLASHBACK_

_"Q, I need to tell you something." Santana said carefully. Quinn nodded and turned toward the brunette with interest. Anything that had been bothering Santana this much and was making her this nervous was definitely worth hearing._

_"What's up, S? You can tell me anything, you know that." Quinn replied. Santana nodded._

_"You just... you can't flip out on me, okay?" Santana asked. Quinn nodded slowly._

_"Okay... Santana, you're worrying me. What's wrong?" Quinn asked. Santana took a deep breath._

_"IthinkIlikeRachel." Santana said quickly. Quinn's brow furrowed._

_"Huh?" she said. _

_"I said I think I like Rachel." Santana said quietly. Quinn's jaw dropped open._

_"Rachel **Berry**?" Quinn exclaimed. Santana nodded and looked down. _

_"For awhile now... I just-"_

_"Hold up. What the hell? What kind of fucking game are you trying to play, Lopez?" Quinn said._

_"What the hell are you talking about, Quinn?" Santana yelled. Quinn started to speak, but held her tongue. She was not about to let Santana know that she liked Rachel as well._

_"If you're going to try to make Brittany jealous, do you really think **Man-Hands** is going to do that?" Quinn improvised. Santana's eyes narrowed._

_"This is has nothing to do with Britt and you need to shut the hell up about that. You don't fucking know **anything** about me and B." Santana said. Quinn could only sigh. "And what the fuck is your problem? I told you not to freak out on me!" Santana yelled. Quinn shrugged._

_"I just remember, I have to go. See you later, S." Quinn said._

_"Don't fucking tell anybody!" Santana yelled after her._

_END FLASHBACK_

Since then, Santana and Quinn hadn't said a word to each other. Santana looked over, pulling out of her flashback, and hoped to catch sight of her (secretly) favorite brunette walking down the hallway. She saw the girl standing at her locker and _almost_ allowed a small smile to grace her lips before frowning when she saw a certain blonde bitch approaching the smaller girl.

Rachel Berry was used to standing alone in the hallway. She had gone til sophomore year without having a single friend. That all changed when she joined Glee Club. Finn Hudson was her first friend, crush, boyfriend, and love. And somehow, she had managed to throw it all away with one mistake. To say she was surprised to look over and see one Quinn Fabray approaching her with a smile and _without _a slushie would be a major understatement. "Hello, Quinn. How are you today?" Rachel asked, hiding her shock. Quinn smiled sweetly.

"Hi Rachel. I'm good. How are you?" Quinn replied, the smile never leaving her face.

"I'm... good. What can I help you with?" Rachel asked.

"Oh nothing... I just wanted to say hello. You know, actually now that you mention it, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out together sometime? We could get dinner and see a movie - my treat, of course - or even just hang out at your house and do Glee stuff or order something in - again, my treat - and watch one of those musicals you always talk about. Just let me know." Quinn said, sending a wink and another smile Rachel's way as she walked away from the small brunette.

'_Oh fuck no. That better not be what it fucking looked like or your ass is **mine, **Quinn Fabray.' _Santana thought. Eyes narrowed, she closed her locker and walked over to Rachel, completely forgetting about Brittany. When the smaller brunette turned to grab a book from her backpack, Santana slipped in between the diva's body and her locker. When Rachel turned around, Santana spoke. "Hey." Santana said, with a smile. Gasping, Rachel jumped back in surprise, tripping over her backpack in the process. Santana reached out to catch her before she fell and pulled Rachel close to her body. "You should be careful, Berry. I don't think you don't want to get hurt." Santana said softly. Rachel removed herself from Santana's grip.

"How can I help you, Santana?" Rachel asked. Santana smiled innocently.

"I'm not allowed to say _'hi'_ to my teammate?" Santana asked. Rachel shrugged.

"You've never shown an interest in talking to me before." Rachel said.

"Well I am now." Santana said. Rachel sighed.

"Santana, you are currently blocking my path to be able to get to my locker. Could you please move?" Rachel requested. Santana nodded and slid over so that Rachel could have access to her locker.

"Rachel," she began sweetly. Rachel looked over with interest. It wasn't every day Santana Lopez called her by her first name. Usually it was **_'RuPaul' _**or **_'Man-Hands'_** or **_'Treasure Trail'_** or some nickname about her height. Then there was the ever so clever **'_Berry'_** that was often used by the Latina when she could come up with a good (or bad, depending on which end of the conversation you were on) nickname.

"Yes, Santana?" Rachel asked in a kinder tone than she had previously used.

"What were you talking about with Quinn?" Santana asked, trying not to sound _too _interested. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Santana, I can assure you that my conversation with Quinn was not about you and it does not concern you in anyway." Rachel said, her tone a bit more harsh than she'd intended. She felt a little bad when Santana winced at the tone.

"Sorry. I was just wondering..." Santana mumbled dejectedly. Rachel hesitated before answering the girl's earlier question.

"Quinn was asking me if I would be interested in hanging out with her outside of school sometime." Rachel said. Santana's eyes narrowed for a second. "Do you have a problem, Santana?" Rachel asked. Santana shook her head.

"I have to go. I'll see you around, Rachel." Santana said, sending a charming smile Rachel's way before turning around to walk away.

Across the hall, Quinn watched the exchange with fire in her eyes. She had turned around to catch one more glimpse of Rachel and saw Santana pull Rachel close to her body after the girl almost fell. _'That fucking bitch._' Quinn thought. Santana turned around to see Quinn watching her and stormed down the hallway. Quinn was not surprised when she was pushed into an empty classroom by the angry Latina.

"What the fuck are you doing, Fabray?" Santana asked. Quinn smiled innocently.

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked. Santana rolled her eyes.

"Don't fucking play with me, Q. You _know_ I like Rachel. I told you that. Why are you hitting on her?" Santana asked.

"Because I like her too." Quinn said.

"Since when?"

"Since before you told me. I'm not letting you get this one, Santana." Quinn said. Santana's eyes narrowed.

"You better be ready to fight for her, Tubbers." Santana said.

"Bring it Satan." Quinn said. Santana rolled her eyes.

"Real clever." Santana said sarcastically. Quinn rolled her eyes and walked past the furious Latina to exit the room. Both girls were thinking the exact same thing.

_Game on, bitch. Game. Fucking. On._


	2. Chapter 2

Santana walked into one entrance of her English Lit class at the same time that Quinn walked into the other. They glared at each other before spotting the seat they each wanted. There were two seats left: One directly next to Rachel and one directly behind her. Both girls wanted the seat next to her, however Quinn was closer and got there first, slipping into the seat next to Rachel and offering her smile when she did so. Santana growled and resisted the urge to bitch slap Quinn as she slipped past, winking at Rachel as she did so, to sit behind Rachel. Quinn turned to smile smugly at Santana before striking up a conversation with Rachel. Santana silently cheered when the teacher moved to begin class. After about ten minutes, the teacher told them that they were going to break up into pairs and work on an assignment. Santana held her breath as Quinn moved to ask Rachel, but she was stopped by the teacher.

"Actually, Ms. Fabray, I've already chosen the pairs ahead of time." their teacher, Mr. Raymond said. Quinn nodded and leaned back in her chair. "Okay so here are the pairs. Mr. Mike Chang and... Mr. Artie Abrams. Ms. Quinn Fabray and... Mr. Kurt Hummel." Again, Santana silently cheered before holding her breath as she waited for her name. "Ms. Rachel Berry and... Ms. Santana Lopez..." Santana didn't even listen to the rest of the names. '_Fucki yes! Fucking take **that**, Fabray!." _Santana thought, smirking as Quinn turned to glare at the Latina. When they broke up into their pairs, they were told they could move wherever they wanted in the room.

"Hey Rachel, let's go over here." Santana said to the smaller brunette. Rachel hesitated a moment before following the Latina to the far corner of the room. The two slid to the floor and looked at their assignment. "So, Rach-"

"What did you just call me?" Rachel asked. Santana looked up from the paper, confused.

"I'm sorry?" Santana asked. Rachel smiled.

"You called me **_'Rach'_**." Rachel said. Santana gave her a confused look. "I mean, I thought it was weird earlier when you called me **_'Rachel'_**, but **_'Rach'_** is just... you've never called me **_'Rach'_** before, Santana." Rachel explained.

"Oh... I'm sorry. Do you not want me to call you that?" Santana asked.

"No, its fine. I mean, its better than any thing else you've called me." Rachel said. Santana looked down.

"Rachel, I'm really sorry for everything I've done to you. I understand why you were cold this morning. If you want, I'd like try and be friends." Santana said.

"You... really?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded. "Uh... sure. We can be friends, Santana." Rachel said. Santana smiled.

"Great! So do you think we could hang out sometime?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded.

"I'd like that, Santana." Rachel said, smiling.

"So, Rach, about the assign-"

"So, Santana, as my friend, would it be appropriate if I were to ask you for your advice?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded.

"Sure of course." Santana said. '_We're already getting closer than we were before. This is **so** going **my** way!_' Santana thought.

"Okay, so there's this gir-" Santana raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Let me start over. There's this _person _I kind of like and this person... well this gir... I mean this _person_ hasn't always been the _nicest_ person to me, but we've... well we've had our moments. Anyway, lately this gir... I mean this _person_ has made it a point to be extra nice to me and... they asked me to hang out, and I really want and well... I think they may like me back. What do you think I should do?" Rachel asked. Santana smiled.

"Okay, first... do I know this gir... I mean this _person_?" Santana asked. Rachel blushed and nodded. "Well who is it?" Santana asked. Rachel looked down. '_Fuck yes! She's **totally** going to say **me**! I am **totally** getting Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray can fuck herself!' _Santana thought. "You can tell me, Rach." Santana said, laughing softly.

"Its... okay don't freak out, but... it's Quinn." Rachel whispered. Santana raised her eyebrow.

"Quinn?" Santana whispered. _'What the fuck?'_ Santana thought. Rachel nodded. "You like _Quinn_?" Santana asked. _'This not fucking going the way I fucking wanted it to! What the fuck is up with this? Fucking Quinn Fabray. I'm going to kick her fucking ass when I see her. That bitch is fucking dead.'_ Santana thought. Rachel nodded again. '_Damn it. I thought we were both starting on even ground, but she's fucking got an edge now. Shit!_' Santana thought. "Fucking bitch." Santana mumbled. _'Shit that was supposed to be in my mind.'_

"_Me_?" Rachel asked. Santana quickly shook her head. "Quinn?" she asked. Santana looked down. "Santana, why are you calling a... _that_?" Rachel asked.

"Because she is one." Santana said. Rachel narrowed her eyes.

"Santana, I'm not okay with you reacting this way." Rachel said.

"Rachel, Quinn doesn't like you." Santana said.

"And how exactly would you know?" Rachel asked. Santana started to answer, but saw their teacher watching them.

"Look, next period is lunch. Can we talk in the choir room?" Santana asked. Rachel looked at their teacher and nodded.

"Sure, let's just work on the assignment." Rachel said. Santana nodded and after class ended, she waited at the door for Rachel.

"So, Rachel do you want to eat lunch together?" Quinn asked.

"Quinn, I'd love to, but I told Santana I'd eat with her. Maybe tomorrow?" Rachel compromised. Quinn nodded and looked over to glare at Santana, who smiled smugly at Quinn and mouthed **_'Fuck you!_'** in her direction _as_ Rachel walked past her. "Santana, are you coming?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded and followed Rachel to the choir room. "So, what did you want to talk about, Santana?" Rachel asked when they were both sitting down.

"Quinn doesn't really like you, Rachel." Santana said.

"Again, how would you know?" Rachel asked.

"Because she's just hitting on you to..." Santana said, almost saying '_to piss me off._'

"To what, Santana?" Rachel asked. Santana took a deep breath.

"She's just hitting on you to piss me off." Santana said. Rachel looked confused.

"Why would Quinn flirting with me piss you off?" Rachel asked.

"BecauseIlikeyou." Santana mumbled quickly. Rachel's brow furrowed.

"What?" Rachel asked, genuinely confused.

"I said I like you." Santana said a little louder. Rachel's eyes widened.

"You like me?" Rachel asked. Santana looked down and nodded.

"I like you a lot, Rachel. I've liked you for a while, now actually." Santana admitted.

"I thought you wanted to be my friend." Rachel said.

"I do... but eventually, I'd like to be more than friends..." Santana said.

"Santana, I'm sorry but, like I told you, I have feelings for Quinn." Rachel said. Santana sighed.

"Rachel, Quinn is just trying to be a bitch and do what she's done our entire lives." Santana sighed.

"And what's that?" Rachel demanded.

"She takes whatever I want for herself." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow. "She didn't want to join the Cheerios until I told her that Britt and I were going to. She even missed the first day of tryouts! The first day, Coach Sylvester had told me that I was the most talented one out there and I was probably going to be head Cheerio. The next day, Quinn shows up and then Coach Sylvester makes her head cheerleader. Then, I want Puckerman. I finally had him and then Quinn gets knocked up by him and he drops me almost immediately after he finds out about the lizard baby." Santana said. Rachel frowned.

"Look, Santana, I'm flattered, but you have to understand my point of view. You've always been worse to me than Quinn." Rachel said. Santana looked down.

"Rachel, I told you I'm sorry about everything. But please look at it from _my_ point of view. All my life, I've had everything taken from my grasp by Quinn Fabray. The one time I think I can have a clear shot, Quinn comes in and tries to take it away from me. Take _you_ away from me when I haven't even had a chance to have you." Santana said. Rachel looked away.

"Santana, I'd really like to be friends with you, but I don' t think anything more would fair to either of us. You'd want the relationship to be exclusive and I'd want Quinn." Rachel said. Santana sighed before thinking of the perfect solution. '_I can have her and she can **think** she's trying to make Quinn jealous... that could possibly work... or blow up in my face if it doesn't. But if she does end up with Quinn, this could be my only opportunity to have her... Fuck this. I'm going for it._' Santana thought.

"Look, I have an idea. What if... I helped you get Quinn?" Santana asked. Rachel raised an eyebrow. "I could help you out. We can fake date. Quinn will go crazy and she'll be all over you." Santana said, growing internally livid at the thought of that. On the outside, she was all smiles.

"Santana, I don't know. Especially now that I know how you really feel." Rachel said.

"Rach, I'm cool about it." Santana said. '_No, I'm not_.' Santana thought.

"You really want to help me with Quinn?" Rachel asked.

"Yea." Santana said. '_Fuck no!_' she thought. Rachel though it over for a moment before nodding.

"Okay... I guess. Nut I don't want to lead you on..." Rachel trailed off.

"I'll be fine. Just follow my lead in Glee Club, okay?" Santana said. _'On the bright side, I get to have Rachel even if it **is **fake, I get to piss Quinn off for a while **and** I get to see her go crazy with jealousy. This fake relationship is going to fucking **awesome **and when it turns into a real one? It'll be even better. She'll totally fall for me. I'm Santana Lopez, why wouldn't she fall for me? The only thing standing in the way is that **bitch** Quinn Fabray. Stupid head cheerleader._' Santana thought. Rachel nodded. Santana smiled on the outside, but she grinned evilly on the inside. '_This may start off as **fake** relationship, but Rachel Berry, soon you'll really be mine. Queen Bitch won't even be on your mind, because I'll be the only one in there. It's only a matter of tme. Ha. Watch the fuck out, Fabray. You aren't taking this one away from me. I'm not letting that happen. Soon, Rachel Berry is going to forget **all** about your ass and be **all** mine._' Santana thought


	3. Chapter 3

That afternoon Quinn walked into to the choir room hoping to see Rachel alone. '_Satan stole her for lunch, but I can sit next to her in Glee today._' Quinn thought. She placed a smile on her face, which immediately disappeared when she walked in. Rachel was in the choir room, but not alone. Santana was next to her, with her arm around Rachel's shoulder. The two were giggling and whispering about something. "Hey guys!" Quinn said. Rachel and Santana looked up and saw Quinn standing in front of them. Rachel looked over at Santana, who slightly rolled her eyes and leaned over to whisper something in Rachel's ear. Rachel nodded and laid her head on Santana's shoulder. Quinn's eyes narrowed at Santana. "What's going on?" Quinn asked.

"Rachel and I are dating." Santana said. Quinn hid her surprise.

"Really? Kind of sudden, isn't it?" Quinn asked. Santana shook her head.

"Santana and I have discovered that we have feelings for one another and we've chosen to pursue these feelings." Rachel said. Quinn looked at Rachel and her expression immediately soften. She started to say something, but Mr. Schue and the Glee Club walked in.

"On the spot duets. Puck, nominate someone." Mr. Schue said. Noah Puckerman looked around.

"Santana." Puck said. Mr. Schue nodded.

"Santana, get up here. Mercedes, nominate someone else." the teacher said. Mercedes Jones thought.

"Quinn." Mercedes said. Quinn went up to the front of the room.

"Quinn, choose the song." Mr. Schue said. Quinn nodded and whispered a song to the band.

Quinn (talking):  
><em>Excuse me, can I please talk to you for a minute?<em>

Santana (talking):  
><em>Uh, huh, sure, you know you look kinda familiar<em>

Quinn (talking):  
><em>Yeah, you do too but, umm, I just wanted to know<em>  
><em>Do you know somebody named, you, you know her name<em>

Santana (talking):  
><em>Oh, yeah, definitely I know her name<em>

Quinn (talking):  
><em>I just wanted to let you know she's mine<em>

Santana (talking):  
><em>Huh, no, no, she's mine<em>  
><strong><br>**Both:  
><em>You need to give it up, had about enough<em>  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>  
><strong><br>**Quinn:  
><em>I think it's time we got this straight<em>  
><em>Let's sit and talk face to face<em>  
><em>There is no way you could mistake<em>  
><em>Her for your girl, are you insane?<em>

Santana:  
><em>You see, I know that you may be<em>  
><em>Just a bit jealous of me<em>  
><em>But you're blind if you can't see<em>  
><em>That her love is all in me<em>

Quinn:  
><em>You see I try to hesitate<em>  
><em>I didn't want to say what she told me<em>  
><em>Se said without me she couldn't make<em>  
><em>It through the day, ain't that a shame?<em>  
><strong><br>**Santana:  
><em>But maybe you misunderstood<em>  
><em>'Cause I can't see how she could<em>  
><em>Wanna change something that's so good<em>  
><em>Because my love was all it took<em>

Both:  
><em>The girl is mine<em>  
><em>You need to give it up, had about enough<em>  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>

Santana_:  
><em>_Must you do the things you do?_  
><em>You keep on acting like a fool<em>  
><em>You need to know it's me not you<em>  
><em>And if you didn't know it girl, it's true<em>  
><strong><br>**Quinn:  
><em>I think that you should realize<em>  
><em>I'm trying to understand why<em>  
><em>She is a part of my life<em>  
><em>I know it's killing you inside<em>

Santana:  
><em>You can say what you want to say<em>  
><em>What we have you can't take<em>  
><em>From the truth you can't escape<em>  
><em>I can tell the real from the fake<em>

Quinn:  
><em>But when will you get the picture<em>  
><em>You're the past, I'm the future<em>  
><em>Get away, it's my time to shine<em>  
><em>If you didn't know the girl is mine<em>

Both:  
><em>You need to give it up, had about enough<em>  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>

_You need to give it up, had about enough_  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>

Santana:  
><em>You can't destroy this love I've found<em>  
><em>Your silly games I won't allow<em>  
><em>The girl is mine without a doubt<em>  
><em>You might as well throw in the towel<em>

Quinn_:  
>What makes you think that she wants you<em>  
><em>When I'm the one that brought her to<em>  
><em>Special places in my heart?<em>  
><em>She was my love from the start<em>  
><strong><br>**Both:  
><em>The girl is mine<em>  
><em>You need to give it up, had about enough<em>  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>

_You need to give it up, had about enough_  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the girl is mine<em>

_You need to give it up, had about enough_  
><em>It's not hard to see the girl is mine<em>  
><em>I'm sorry that you seem to be confused<em>  
><em>She belongs to me, the boy is mine<em>

When they were done singing, Quinn walked over to Rachel. "Rachel, I'm not sure that Santana feelings are true. She's just trying to make me mad, because I like you. I want to be with you, Rachel." Quinn said. Rachel smiled and looked at Santana, who closed her eyes.

"I'm flattered, Quinn, but I'm in a relationship with Santana. I hope we can still friends." Rachel said. Santana opened her eyes and smiled. Quinn looked over at Santana glaring.

"You're sticking with Santana?" Quinn said. Rachel nodded. "But, Rach, I can get you to the top. I'm head cheerleader." Quinn said. Finn Hudson stood up.

"Wait, Rachel... you're with Santana? She's the reason we broke up!" Finn said. Rachel shook her head.

"Actually Finn, we broke up because you lied to me about sleeping with her and I got mad and cheated on you. That's why we broke up. You can't tell me who to date and neither can you, Quinn." Rachel said. Finn's jaw dropped. Santana hid a smirk. '_Double score! Finnocence is suffering too!'_ she thought. Finn jumped down and tried to kiss Rachel. Santana tried to pull him off, but Finn pushed her out of the way.

"Back off! You're the reason we broke up, all because you're a filthy, disgusting _whore_ who will get with any girl or guy." Finn yelled. Santana froze with her mouth slightly ajar. She looked at Rachel before backing away.

"Finn!" Mr. Schue yelled.

"Excuse me." Santana mumbled before running out of the room. Rachel stood up to run after her, but Finn stopped her.

"Don't go after her. She'll be fine. Its nothing she hasn't heard before." Finn said. Rachel pulled away.

"Mr. Schue, may I?" Rachel asked. Mr. Schue nodded and Rachel ran out of the room to find Santana. She passed a bathroom and heard some sniffling. She entered and saw Santana sitting on the floor. "Santana, are you okay?" Rachel asked. Santana looked up at her.

"What are you doing in here?" Santana asked.

"I came to check on you, Santana. What Finn said was horrible and its not true." Rachel said. Santana shook her head.

"Rachel, I have slept with anyone who asked. I'm going to ask you again. What are you doing in here? Quinn said she wanted to be with you. That's what you wanted. We don't have to pretend anymore." Santana said. Rachel walked over to Santana and sat next to her. "I'm not a whore." Santana whispered. Rachel stroked her hair.

"I know you aren't." Rachel said. Santana pulled away.

"Your girl is waiting, Rachel." Santana said.

"Look, I do like Quinn... but watching you and Quinn fight over me in song was amazing. I'm not exactly ready to end this..." Rachel said. Santana looked at her.

"You want to make this real?" Santana asked.

"I don't know... can we try casually dating? Nothing exclusive?" Rachel asked. Santana looked down.

"Are you going to date Quinn at the same time?" Santana asked. Rachel hesitated.

"I will also explore my feelings with Quinn, yes." Rachel said. Santana nodded.

"Eventually, you're going to have to choose. Quinn and I don't share well." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"I know, but right now I just think everything should stay casual. Especially sinceI just got out of a relationship." Rachel said. Santana nodded. "But this means you can see other people too." Rachel said. Santana shook her head.

"No... I'm good." Santana said. Rachel nodded and smiled. The door opened and Quinn walked in.

"Are you okay Santana? I'm sorry about what Finn said. If it helps, Mr. Schue is like fucking pissed. Finn's in so much shit it isn't even funny." Quinn said. Santana nodded. "Oh and sorry I hit on your girlfriend..." Quinn said. Rachel spoke up.

"Actually, Quinn, I'd like to talk to you about something." Rachel said. Quinn nodded and sat down as well. "Santana and I were faking our relationship to get you jealous and admit you liked me. However, I've realized that I also have feelings for Santana as well as for you. So... what if we casually dated each other?" Rachel suggested.

"Like Santana and I date each other?" Quinn asked, both girls wrinkling their noses. Rachel shook her head.

"I causally date you and Santana. Nothing exclusive." Rachel said. Quinn nodded. "You can see other people, as well." Rachel said.

"I I can live with that... but you're going to have to choose sometime." Quinn said.

"I know." Rachel said. The three girls walked out of the bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry about the time jump, I just couldn't resist. :)**

* * *

><p>Over the course of the next month, Santana and Quinn had grown frustrated with each other in an attempt to plan something with Rachel. Either Rachel had lessons or the other one wanted to hang out with her. "I can't take this anymore. Should we make some sort of schedule?" Quinn asked Santana when it was just the two of them. Santana looked at her.<p>

"A schedule for what?" Santana asked. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"A schedule for Rachel, dumbass." Quinn said. Santana looked at her as if she'd grown another head. "What?"

"Quinn, she's not some toy you and I paid for together. She's a person, and she's capable of scheduling her own life. Don't treat her as if she's some sort of object we're supposed to share." Santana said. Quinn raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth. "And save the '_I'm head bitch, you can't talk to me like that_' shit, because I don't want to hear it. And no. We aren't make a damn schedule." Santana said before walking away. Quinn rolled her eyes and walked in the opposite direction, pulling out her phone. _'May as well get ahead of Santana for this weekend.'_ she thought as she texted Rachel.

**To: Berry**

**Want to hang out tonight? **

She only had to wait a few minutes for a response.

**I'm sorry, Quinn. I have plans with Santana. - Rachel**

Quinn stared at the message. '_Damn it. That bitch already asked her!_' she thought. She recieved another message.

**Puck**

**Want 2 go out again 2nite? **

Quinn didn't hesitate to respond

**Definitely. - Q**

* * *

><p>Later that day, after school, Santana was getting her books out of her locker. She looked over and saw Rachel watching. Smiling, she waved at Rachel, who waved back. Behind Rachel, Santana saw something. She mentally told herself to keep a straight face so that Rachel wouldn't turn around and see what was going on down the hall. However, Rachel could tell something was wrong by the look in Santana's eyes. Santana saw her start to turn around and quickly headed over to the girl in an attempt to stop her. Just as Rachel was about to see, Santana grabbed her arm and turned her back around. "Hey." Santana said brightly. Rachel smiled. "So about tonight... I was thinking we could go to Breadstix and then something you want to do?" Santana asked, uncertain.<p>

"That sounds perfect." Rachel said, smiling at the Cheerio. Santana nodded, attempting to keep her eyes off of what was happening just down the hall. "Santana, are you okay?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded, but accidentally let her eyes go behind Rachel. Before Santana could stop her, Rachel turned around to see Puck and Quinn kissing at Quinn's locker. Rachel quickly turned back around.

"Rach?" Santana asked.

"What do you want?" Rachel replied harshly. Santana looked down.

"Rachel." Santana said softly. Rachel looked up and saw the hurt in the Latina's eyes.

"I'm sorry." Rachel said. Santana nodded.

"Are you okay?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded absently.

"Santana, how many dates have you had with other people since we started this?" Rachel asked.

"None." Santana answered truthfully.

"How many times have you had sex?" Rachel asked.

"None." Santana answered honestly.

"How many dates has Quinn had?" Rachel asked softly.

"Please don't make me answer that." Santana replied, just as quietly.

"I need to know." Rachel said. Santana sighed.

"The first two weeks, any night she wasn't with you she was with Sam. These past two weeks, she was with Puck." Santana said. Rachel closed her eyes. "As for sex, I don't know about Sam, but Puck doesn't exactly keep things private." Santana added, knowing that was the girl's next question.

"I can't make it tonight. I forgot that I promised my dads I'd help them with something. I'm sorry, Santana." Rachel said. Santana knew she was lying, but let it go.

"Its cool. I'll see you later." Santana said before walking away. Rachel slammed her locker shut, avoided looking at Quinn and Puck, and went to her car.

* * *

><p>That night, Rachel sat on her bed, staring at her phone. She wanted to text Santana and apologize for how she talked to her earlier, but she couldn't will herself to open her phone. Finally, she did, but to text Quinn.<p>

**To: Quinn**

**Do you want to come over after Santana leaves?**

She quickly got a response.

**Quinn**

**Can't. Date w/ Puck**

Rachel frowned.

**What about tomorrow, then? - Rachel**

**Can't. Another date w/ Puck. I g2g. I need 2 get ready. - Q**

In that moment, Rachel knew that she couldn't do this anymore. For the past month, she'd been carefully thinking it over. She couldn't decide between Santana and Quinn, but knew she couldn't keep this going forever. The moment she read that text, she remembered how Santana had tried to keep Rachel from seeing Quinn kissing Puck at her locker earlier. Santana could have easily used that as her ticket to get Rachel, but instead she tried to keep Rachel from getting hurt. And when Rachel had asked Santana how many times Quinn had been on dates and hooked up, she hadn't wanted to answer because she wanted to save the girl from pain. And _Santana Lopez _wasn't having sex, because she cared about Rachel enough to do that, even though Rachel had told them it was okay for them to see other people. Even on their dates, Santana and Quinn treated Rachel differently. Santana was extremely sweet, while Quinn could be dismissive at some points. Rachel had chosen to ignore it at the time, but Quinn had even flirted with their waiter while at dinner one night. Santana didn't pay attention to anything or anyone other than Rachel.

_FLASHBACK_

_Santana had taken Rachel to the local vegan restaraunt that had recently opened and to the local county fair on their first date. It sounds lame, but it was the only thing that the people around Lima actually cared about, so it was usually pretty epic. This year was no exception. The first thing they'd done was ride the Ferris Wheel. Rachel was surprised to find out that Santana was afraid of extreme heights, so she kept the girl's attention with small talk the entire time. As soon as they were off the ride, Rachel began apologizing for suggesting it. Santana wasn't angry with her, but Rachel still felt bad. They went on every ride that Rachel wanted to go on. After they were done with the rides and they'd had a snack, Santana suggested playing games. She smiled sweetly as Rachel failed (epically) at the ring toss game. The smaller girl's eyes kept drifting toward a certain prize and Santana knew that's what she was determined to win. When Rachel gave up and went to the restroom, Santana bought a round of rings and easily won. When told to pick a prize, she chose the one Rachel had been looking at and went to wait for the girl. Rachel came out of the restroom and Santana handed her the gold stuffed bear she had wanted._

_"That's the one you wanted, right?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded. "I won it for you." Santana said, smiling shyly as she looked down. Rachel smiled and used her finger to lift the Latina's chin up. Santana grabbed the smaller girl's hands and Rachel started to lean in, but Santana turned away shyly. "What do you want to do now?" Santana asked, smiling down at Rachel and never letting go of her hand. Santana picked out an easy game, as Rachel insisted on winning the girl something in return. After five tries, she finally won Santana a red stuffed bear. When Santana took her home, she kissed Rachel on the cheek, but asked for nothing more, as if she was afraid of pushing the girl too far and losing her._

_END FLASHBACK_

_FLASHBACK_

_Quinn had taken Rachel to dinner and a movie on their first date. They'd gone to the local Mexican food restaraunt, as Quinn said she had a craving for Mexican food. Rachel wasn't sure if she would be able to find anything vegan on the menu, but she went along with it anyway. She knew she could always get unbuttered popcorn at the movie. While they were at dinner (Rachel found a regular salad), their waiter (who was relatively cute) continuously flirted with Quinn. The blonde had no problem flirting back. Rachel looked down every time she did. When the waiter wasn't around, all Quinn could talk about was the Cheerios. Rachel understood wanting to talk about intersts, but Rachel knew nothing about the Cheerios, so she couldn't contribute much to the conversation. While at the movies (which Quinn had picked), Rachel was somewhat bored. The movie was okay, but it didn't really hold her attention. Her mind continued to wander (mostly to how different this date had been to her date with Santana) and when she tuned in she got lost. When they were back at Rachel's house, Quinn quickly kissed her before leaving. It was nice, but she couldn't help but think about how adorable Santana had been when she'd dropped her off._

_END FLASHBACK_

Rachel, knowing her mind was almost made up, jumped in her car for the final test. She drove to Santana's house, noticing that only Santana's car was in the driveway, and ran up the walkway to the Latina's house. Ringing the doorbell, she impatiently shifted from foot to foot. The moment the door opened and the taller brunette appeared, Rachel tackled her to the floor, attempting to kiss her. "I want you." she whispered in the Latina's ear. When Rachel tried again to kiss her, Santana rolled them over and pulled away. "What's wrong, San?" Rachel asked. The Latina looked down.

"While I _had_ planned on having our first kiss tonight, I didn't plan it this way..." Santana said. Rachel smiled even wider.

"You wanted us to have our first kiss tonight?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded. Rachel pulled her back down, but hugged her this time.

"What do you mean you want me?" Santana asked.

"I want you. Only you." Rachel said. Santana raised an eyebrow and stood up.

"What about Quinn?" she asked, offering the diva a hand to help her up. As Rachel accepted the hand, she spoke.

"Fuck Quinn."

"I thought you wanted _me_." Santana joked. Rachel smiled.

"_Forget_ Quinn." Rachel said. Santana smiled sadly.

"Rach, you're just doing this because of what happened in the hallway earlier." Santana said. Rachel shook her head.

"No. Throughout this entire thing, you've treated me better. Quinn has been with other people - yes, I know I said she could - this entire time. You haven't been with anyone else. You haven't even hooked up with anyone since we started this. On our dates, you've always paid attention to just me. You always made sure I could eat when we went to dinner. And when we went to the carnival and you won me that bear and I tried to kiss you, you were so adorable when you turned away. On my first date with Quinn, she took me to a Mexican food restaraunt, flirted with the damn waiter and talked about stuff that I didn't care about all night. She never once asked me what movie I wanted to see, and throughout the entire date, I was thinking of you. Every single time I was out with Quinn, my mind always ended up on you. Whenever I'm with you, you're the only thing that's on my mind. Santana, I want you. I don't want Quinn. I want to _be_ with you. Not this casual shit that we've been doing - and yes I know that I suggested it - but I want this to be real. I want _us_ to be real. And I know you want that too. I know my timing sucks, considering what happened earlier, but its been a long time coming. Please say you want to be with me too." Rachel said. Santana smiled.

"_Of course_ I want to be with you, Rach." Santana said. Rachel looked down shyly.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Santana?" Rachel asked. Santana grinned and lifted the smaller diva's chin.

"Of course I will, Rachel." Santana said. Rachel smiled as Santana hugged her. "But now that I don't have to worry about Quinn sweeping you off your feet and never getting the chance to kiss you, you're going to have to wait until the moment is right." Santana said. Rachel pouted. "Calm down, little lady. I'll make sure the right moment isn't to far away from now." Santana promised. Rachel smiled and nodded.

"Do you still want to go on a date?" Rachel asked. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you had to help your dads." Santana teased.

"I made that up so I could think about stuff... but you already knew I made that up, didn't you?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded.

"I have lied to get out of dates before. Never with you, as you know I've never missed a date, but it has happened in the past." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Do tell, Ms. Lopez." Rachel said. Santana laughed.

"Apparently one night I got so drunk I agreed to a date with Jew Fro." Santana said. Rachel fake-gagged.

"Ok, _that's_ understandable." Rachel said. Santana nodded. "So... Breadstix? Movie?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded again.

"Let me change out of my sweats and then we'll go." Santana said. Rachel nodded and waited for Santana. The girl quickly returned in jeans, a nice shirt, and a jacket. She grabbed her phone. "I'm assuming you're driving?" Santana asked Rachel, who nodded. The Latina reached for her wallet, but the diva stopped her.

"Its on me." Rachel said.

"No. Its our first date as a real couple. I want to pay." Santana said. Rachel thought for a second. "I get dinner, you get the tickets, and we buy our own drinks at the movies. Deal?" Santana compromised.

"Let me get the drinks. Dinner and tickets isn't an even split." Rachel said. Santana sighed.

"Fine. But next time you let me actually pay for the entire night." Santana said. Rachel smiled and grabbed the other girl's hand. When they reached Rachel's car, Santana opened the driver side door for Rachel, smiling as Rachel kissed her cheek before actually getting in the car. The moment they walked into Breadstix (with Santana opening both Rachel's car door and the door to the building open for the smaller brunette), Santana saw Quinn and Puck sitting in a corner booth. Rachel followed her girlfriend's gaze and looked down when she saw the pair. "Do you want to go somewhere else?" Santana asked quietly, putting a hand on Rachel's back. The diva shook her head.

"Quinn doesn't matter anymore. I'm telling her tomorrow that you and I are together." Rachel said. Santana nodded, but released her hold on Rachel's hand and asked for a table on the opposite side of the restaraunt. The pair was led to the back of the restaraunt. Santana noticed that Rachel relaxed a little.

"You sure you don't want to leave?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded.

"I'm not going to let you miss out on your beloved Breadstix." Rachel said. Santana smiled.

"I'd rather you be comfortable." she replied. Rachel grinned and took one of the Latina's hands in her own.

"As long as you're with me, I am." Rachel said. Santana started to respond when Rachel's phone vibrated. Santana watched as the other girl frowned at the screen.

"Is it her?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded and showed her the text.

**Quinn**

**Can I come over?**

"What are you going to say?" Santana asked, knowing the girl wants to wait until the next day to tell Quinn.

"I'm going to tell her no. She doesn't need a reason." Rachel said. Santana nodded and Rachel responded to the message. Both girls sighed when her phone vibrated yet again. Rachel made no motion to look at the phone and when Santana silently asked if she could, Rachel nodded. "Please do." Rachel said. Santana frowned when she read the message.

**Quinn**

**Oh come on. I'll even sit through one of your stupid musicals.**

Santana looked up. "This how she always talks to you?" Santana asked, referring to the message. Rachel shrugged. "Rachel." Santana said. Rachel nodded. "Fucking bitch." Santana mumbled under her breath. Rachel took her phone back and deleted the message.

"I think you were right when you said she didn't actually like me." Rachel said quietly. Santana looked at the girl.

"And what did we learn?" Santana teased in a sing song voice.

"That Santana needs to shut up." Rachel replied in the same tone, smiling.

"I believe the correct answer was that Santana's always right." Santana said. Rachel rolled her eyes playfully. "So you never would tell me what you decided to name that bear that I won you at the carnival." Santana said, changing the subject since Rachel was clearly growing uncomfortable with the one at hand. Rachel grinned.

"Well, you weren't exactly offering the name you chose either." Rachel said.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Santana said. Rachel nodded. "I'll even go first." Santana said.

"I'm waiting." Rachel said, smiling.

"_'Ray Bear'_..." Santana almost whispered. Rachel's smile grew even wider. "Is it too cheesy?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"Its actually kind of funny... I named mine _'Sanny Bear'_." Rachel said. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to start calling me _'Sanny Bear'_, aren't you?" Santana asked. Rachel grinned and nodded. "Go ahead. Its actually kind of cute. But keep it to a minimum when we're in school. I have my reputation as a badass and the nickname _'Sanny Bear'_ doesn't help that." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"In school I'll call you by your name." Rachel said.

"I didn't say you had to do that. You can call me 'San' or even _'Sanny'_ if you want. And if its just the two of us in the hallway, go for it with _'Sanny Bear'_. But babe, you're with a badass. I'm not going to be all badasses don't do relationships in public with you, but I have to have some limits, you know?" Santana asked.

"Santana, I understand." Rachel said, smiling.

"And now you want me to call you _'Ray Bear'_, don't you?" Santana asked, smiling. Rachel nodded hesitantly. "I'll try, but it may sound weird coming out of my mouth at first. But if you want me to, I'll do it." Santana said. Rachel smiled. "You're sure this is what you want right? I mean, I see how Quinn treats you, but some girls are into that..." Santana said.

"I'm not. I'm into you. You're what I want. You're _who_ I want." Rachel said. Santana grinned. "I'm just sorry I waited so long." Rachel continued.

"Don't be. I get it, Rach." Santana said. They got through dinner and the movie without mentioning Quinn again. When they got out of the movie, Santana suggested a walk. "Do you want music?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded and Santana pulled out her iPhone. Suddenly, a Broadway song softly played out of the device. Shocked, Rachel looked up at Santana.

"Can I see that?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded and Rachel scrolled through the playlist. "These all look really familiar." Rachel said. Santana smiled.

"They should. You've sang them all in Glee Club." Santana said.

"You made a playlist of all the songs I've sang in Glee Club?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded.

"Well, all the ones I can remember. I can't help but feel like I've missed a couple." Santana said, stopping on the bridge they were on to lean against the railing. She placed her phone on the railing just as '_The Climb_' came on. Rachel smiled as she leaned against the railing. "And yes, I included this one." Santana said, smiling at Rachel.

"That's really sweet of you, Santana. How long did it take you to make this?" Rachel asked.

"Making the playlist itself was the easy part. First, I had to take the time to remember all the songs you've sang. I did songs you've sang in competition, group numbers we've done that you've had solos in, and songs you've sang for your assignments. That took me about an hour. Then I searched through all the CDs that my parents own to see if we had any of them. That took awhile, but I found like half the songs. Then I had to find the other ones on iTunes. That, plus the time it took to download, took a couple of hours to do. Then it was just a matter of putting them in the playlist." Santana explained. Rachel smiled as the chorus came on.

_There's always gonna be another mountain  
>I'm always gonna wanna make it move<br>Always gonna be an uphill battle  
>Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose<em>

Santana and Rachel started to move closer to one another.

_Ain't about how fast I get there  
>Ain't about what's waiting on the other side<br>It's the climb_

Santana and Rachel's lips met at the end of the chorus. Both girls smiled into the kiss. When Santana pulled away, she looked into the horizon. Rachel was the first to speak. "The moment was definitely right." she said. Santana smirked.

"Told you I wouldn't make you wait long." she said, putting an arm around her girlfriend and pulling her close. Rachel smiled as Santana kissed her forehead and she grabbed the Latina's neck to pull her into another kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Santana arrived to school still excited from the previous night's events. She had wanted to pick up Rachel on her way to school, but her diva had texted Quinn asking her to meet her in the choir room before school. Santana knew that Rachel was going to tell Quinn about their relationship. She had offered to be there, but Rachel thought it best to do it alone. She reached her locker and saw Brittany staring at her own locker intently. Cautiously, Santana approached the tall blonde. "Uh... you okay, Britt?" Santana asked. Brittany looked at her best friend.

"I can't remember how to open my locker." Brittany said. Santana sighed in her head.

"Britt, you use the combination that the school gave you to open the lock." Santana said before noticing that there was no lock on the locker. "Did you already do that?" Santana asked. Brittany nodded. Santana closed her eyes before opening the door for the innocent blonde, who smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, S." Brittany said. Santana smiled at her best friend.

"Its what I'm here for, B." Santana said.

"Hey didn't you have a date with Rachel last night?" Brittany asked. Santana nodded.

"Yea... well she had cancelled, but then she showed up at my house later that night and... we made it official. No more of that casual dating shit." Santana said. Brittany smiled and hugged Santana, before pausing.

"What about Quinn?" Brittany asked. Santana rolled her eyes.

"Quinn's a bitch to Rachel and she's had enough of it. In fact, she should be telling Quinn about us right now." Santana answered. Brittany nodded and turned back to her locker.

"I'm really happy for you, S." Brittany said. Santana smiled.

"Thanks, B. You know how much that means to me." Santana answered before opening her own locker and smiling at the picture of her and Rachel she'd put in there after their first date. Rachel had taken it with Santana's phone during her attempt to distract the girl while they were on the Ferris Wheel. She emptied her backpack and put the stuff she'd need for her first class in her backpack before turning around to see Rachel walking toward her. She instantly smiled and waited for the smaller brunette to reach her. Before Santana could even say hello, Brittany spoke up.

"Hey Rachel! I'm really happy for you and Santana." Brittany said, smiling while trying to close her locker.

"Thank you, Brittany." Rachel said quietly. Santana smiled softly at Rachel before leaning over and helping the blonde out.

"Thanks." Brittany said. Santana nodded before turning her attention to Rachel.

"Hey." Santana said, suddenly very shy. She looked down at her shoes before looking up to meet the diva's eyes. Rachel attempted to smile.

"Hi." Rachel said. Santana immediately knew something was up.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Santana asked, eyes filled with worry and concern. "It didn't go well with Quinn, did it?" Santana asked, realization hitting her. Rachel nodded, looking down. "Well, what happened?" Santana asked.

_FLASHBACK_

_Rachel sat on the piano bench as she waited for Quinn to enter the choir room. "What's up Rachel?" Quinn asked as she entered._

_"Quinn, I need to tell you something." Rachel said._

_"Look, I'm sorry about blowing you off last night, but you blew me off too." Quinn said, suddenly defensive._

_"This isn't about that, Quinn. Well, in a way it is... look last night I realized what, well who I want. And who I want is Santana." Rachel said. Quinn stood up from the chair she'd been occupying._

_"You want her? Why?" Quinn exclaimed._

_"Because she treats me better than you do. You know this entire time she hasn't had one single date. You have." Rachel said._

_"You told me I could!" Quinn said._

_"I know. But if you had really wanted to be with me, you wouldn't have taken that opportunity. I know you've had sex with Noah. Santana hasn't been with anyone but me in any way. And even on our dates, she's better to me than you. She asks me what I want to do. She chooses restaraunts that I can actually eat at. She doesn't flirt with the damn waiter-" Rachel was cut off by Quinn's hand coming in contact with her face. She looked up at Quinn, who had narrowed eyes. __"We're done here." Rachel said before gathering up her stuff and walking out of the choir room, instantly seeking out Santana and the comfort her arms would provide._

_END FLASHBACK_

During the process of telling Santana what had happened, Rachel had manuvered her way into Santana's arms. Santana could tell she was trying hard not to cry, and she squeezed her arms around the smaller girl. "She hit you?" Santana asked as calmly as she could. Rachel nodded as best as she could with her head buried in Santana's chest. Santana looked at Brittany, who had wide eyes. Santana nodded to herself and released her hold on Rachel, gently pushing the girl into Brittany's arm. "That bitch is fucking dead." Santana muttered, before handing Brittany her backpack and walking away. People could tell from the look on her face that she was pissed and dove out of her way. Her eyes finall locked on the blonde she was after. She picked her pace up to a fast jog and (when she reached the blonde) slammed her into the nearby lockers.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Quinn asked, pushing Santana back.

"What the fuck is my problem? You hit my girlfriend, _that's_ my fucking problem!" Santana yelled. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"You mean the one you stole from me?" Quinn asked.

"You started hitting on her when you _knew_ I liked her! And anyway, you don't deserve her! You treat her like shit and she deserves better than that!" Santana yelled. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"You're dating Rachel Berry!"

"Yep. Sure am." Santana said, slapping Quinn across the face. "Doesn't feel so good to be slapped, does it Quinnie?" Santana asked. Quinn got in her face.

"You can't hit me!" Quinn yelled.

"Oh sure I can, unless you got yourself knocked up again, _slut_." Santana said. Quinn growled and grabbed Santana's hair. The Latina mauvered her way out of the blonde's grasp before pushing her into the lockers again. Quinn attempted to come back, but Santana pushed her to the ground. Before she could do any more damage, Mr. Schue intervened.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on here?" Mr. Schue asked. Both girls glared at each other, but refused to answer. "Quinn! Santana! What is the problem?" Mr. Schue asked.

"Quinn just needed a lesson on respect. I happily helped her out. You're welcome." Santana said before walking away to find Brittany and Rachel again.

"Quinn, is that really what happened?" Mr. Schue asked. Quinn shrugged and walked away. There were better ways to get back at Santana Lopez than to rat her out. Santana found Brittany and Rachel in the outside eating area / place to hang out when not in class.

"You fought Quinn." Rachel said the moment the Latina sat down. Santana raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend.

"How the hell do you already know about that?" Santana asked. Rachel held up her iPhone.

"Kurt video taped the whole thing and sent it to me. While it was very sweet, though you could have left out the dig at her pregnancy, you could get into serious trouble if she goes to Figgins." Rachel said. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Did you miss the part of that video where I said that you're my girlfriend?" Santana asked. Rachel's brow furrowed.

"Apparently... was that when you slapped her?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded. "That part was covered up by Mercedes laughing in the background. I couldn't understand what you said." Rachel explained.

"The entire school will know we're together by the end of the day. Not that I ever hid the fact that we were hanging out in the first place, but you know." Santana said. Rachel's face softened.

"Quinn never acknowledged us outside of the choir room..." Rachel said softly.

"Do I look like Quinn? No. I don't." Santana said. Rachel smiled softly. "I'm not ashamed of you, Ray Bear." she whispered. Rachel's smile grew even wider and she moved to hug Santana.

"Awwwww... Sanny Bear..." Rachel said softly, kissing Santana. Brittany laughed.

"Shut up, Britt." Santana said against Rachel's lips. Rachel chuckled at the vibrations, but pulled away.

"For the record, it didn't sound weird coming out of your mouth." Rachel said. Santana smiled and stood up, knowing the warning bell was going to ring soon.

"Walk you to English Lit?" Santana asked, offering her hand to Rachel. The smaller girl nodded, accepting the hand to help her up. Not letting go of Rachel's hand, the pair said goodbye to Brittany, who had to walk to the opposite side of the school. Luckily, Artie rolled up to accompany her to class. "Thank God for Artie. I was always late to the classes that Britt and I don't share because she needs someone to walk her to class." Santana explained. Rachel smiled.

"You're a really good friend to her, Santana." Rachel observed.

"She's been my best friend since day care. She's so innocent, she needs someone to protect her." Santana said.

"Well she's lucky to have you in that role." Rachel said. Santana smiled down at her girlfriend.

"I'll protect you, too. Quinn won't ever hurt you again. Physically or emotionally." Santana promised. Rachel nodded.

"I believe you." Rachel replied. Santana squeezed her hand and the pair continued the walk to class in a comfortable silence. When they walked in, however, there was a slight problem. There were two seats open, but they weren't together. But the major problem was that the two seats that were open were either directly behind Quinn or right next to the blonde. Santana released Rachel's hands and walked over to Jacob Ben-Israel, who was occupying the seat directly behind the seat next to Quinn.

"You. Jew Fro. Move up a seat." Santana ordered. Rachel smirked at how her girlfriend could easily go from the loving, caring person she was to the stereotypical high school cheerleader. Over the course of the month they'd been hanging out, Rachel had learned that Santana hated being the sterotypical cheerleader, but she had to do it if she wanted to keep her spot. She vowed both to herself and to Rachel that she'd never treat Rachel that way. Jacob looked up at Santana.

"No. I want to sit next to Rachel." he said, looking at Rachel with a small smile. He wiggled his fingers in a small wave. Santana turned around to see Rachel's expression one of pure disgust. Fighting the urge to smirk, she turned around.

"Eyes forward, Jew Fro. You're gonna get up and go sit next to Quinn. Clear?" Santana asked, narrowing her eyes. Swallowing he nodded and moved seats. Santana motioned for Rachel to join her, with Santana taking the seat behind Jacob, so that it'd be harder for Quinn to turn around and talk to Rachel.


	6. Chapter 6

Santana kept an eye on Quinn the entire class. Rachel noticed her girlfriend's tense state and put a hand on Santana's knee, smiling as the girl instantly relaxed and looked over at Rachel with a smile on her face. '_Its okay._' Rachel mouthed. Santana nodded.

"Okay, so this time we're going to split into groups of eight for our next project." the teacher said. Santana raised her hand.

"Can we choose our groups?" Santana asked. The teacher hesitated, but shook his head.

"Okay so, Ms. Lopez, you're with Mr. Abrams, Mr. Chang, Ms. Jones, Mr. Hummel, Ms. Berry, Ms. Fabray, and Mr. Ben-Israel." Mr. Raymond said. Rachel squeezed Santana's hand.

"At least we're together for the project." Rachel whispered. Santana nodded.

"Yea, but we're also with Quinn and your creeper stalker." Santana whispered back. They gathered their stuff and moved to the far corner with their group. Santana sat against the wall and pulled Rachel to sit between her legs, wrapping her arms around her protectively.

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Rachel whispered as Quinn and Jacob glared at them. Santana shook her head and leaned down to whisper in Rachel's ear.

"Not a fucking chance. I'm not letting her get that close to hurting you again and I'm not letting that creep near you..." Santana said. Rachel sighed. "..._Ray Bear_." Santana whispered in Rachel's ear. Rachel smiled wide.

"So... what do you guys want to do for the project?" Quinn spoke up, glaring at Santana. Santana rolled her eyes and pulled Rachel closer to her.

"Well, the directions say find a creative way to express the mood of _Romeo and Juliet _and make a video of it." Mercedes said. Santana thought.

"Well... most of us are in Glee Club. We could find a song." Santana said.

"What do we do about Jew Fro?" Quinn asked.

"...He can run the camera." Santana said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"That's a great idea, San." Rachel said, smiling up at the Latina who instantly returned the smile. Rachel leaned her head on Santana's shoulder as the group discussed songs.

"What about Taylor Swift's song _Love Story_?" Quinn suggested. Everyone thought it over.

"Shouldn't it be a duet, since there's guys in the group too?" Rachel asked.

"Well, we could make two videos. One that has the girls on lead vocals, and one that has the guys." Mercedes said. They all agreed and asked Mr. Raymond, who thought it was a great idea. "So who's going to sing for the girls?" Mercedes asked.

"Rachel, obviously. She's the best singer." Santana said. Rachel shook her head.

"We should split up the lyrics It is a group project, after all." Rachel said. Santana's face broke into a huge grin.

"Aw... you're awesome." Santana said, sounding like a lovesick teen. Rachel smiled brightly.

"_You're _awesome." Rachel countered, smiling into the kiss Santana gave her. Quinn rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Seriously? Some of us are trying to work!" she exclaimed. Mr. Raymond looked up.

"Is there a problem Ms. Fabray?" he asked.

"We're trying to work on our project and those two can't keep their mouths apart for two seconds." Quinn said. Santana rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Fabray. We kissed once in class." Santana said.

"Yea, Quinn. Let them have their fun. Their in their honeymoon phase." Mercedes said.

"Girls, tone it down, please." Mr. Raymond said, clearly not wanting to deal with this particular drama. Both brunettes nodded as he walked away to check on the other groups.

"Quinn, you didn't have to do that." Rachel said quietly.

"Well, we shouldn't have to watch you two make out all the time. Its disgusting." Quinn said.

"You weren't saying that before I told you we couldn't go out anymore." Rachel said. Quinn rolled her eyes. "Fuck you, Quinn." Rachel said to the blonde. Everyone, including Santana, looked at Rachel in shock. They'd never heard her talk to anyone like that before.

"You already did, remember?" Quinn said. Santana's face dropped and she stared at Rachel.

"San, I didn't. I swear." Rachel said.

"You told me that you wanted _me_." Santana whispered.

"I do want you... Sanny Bear please believe me." Rachel said. Everyone looked at each other when they heard that nickname, but knew better than to comment on it (even Jacob wasn't that stupid and Quinn wasn't that crazy) and sat there in silence.

"But you had sex with her... I... I held out for you and you were having sex with _her_?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"Santana, please. I want to be with _you. _I only want to have sex with _you_." Rachel whispered. Santana looked down as the bell rang. Silently, she stood up around Rachel and walked out of the classroom after grabbing her things. When everyone was gone, Rachel turned to Quinn. "You managed to mess up my relationship the day after it started. Why the hell did you do that?" Rachel asked.

"Your relationship can't be that strong if it's already starting to crumble. It's just a small step in my plan to ruin Santana. First was to make her go crazy by trying to date the girl she likes. Actually, the plan was to date the girl she likes, but that didn't happen so I'm readjusting the plan. Now time to ruin her relationship with the girl she likes." Quinn said.

"Wait... you never liked me?" Rachel asked. Quinn snorted.

"As if. Do you really think I'd go after _you_ when I have Puck? Look at you. You dress like my grandmother and my four year old cousin mixed together. You're loud and annoying as hell. You do nothing for me, Berry. In fact, you don't do anything for anyone." Quinn said.

"She does for me." Santana said, walking in the room. Rachel looked at Santana with tears in her eyes.

"What are you doing in here?" Rachel asked. Santana put her stuff on a table and gently pushed Rachel out of the way.

"I came here to apologize to you. Now, I'm "readjusting the plan" and kicking Quinn's ass." Santana said.

"Whenever you're ready Lopez. You hit me and get suspended. Coach will kick you off the Cheerios for sure. Then you won't even have a chance to protect your dwarf - I mean girlfriend." Quinn said.

"Haven't you hurt her enough? Knock it off with the damn insults!" Santana said. Quinn slapped her in the face. Santana moved to hit her back, but the mixture of Rachel's hands grabbing her wrist and Ms. Pillsbury's voice stopped her.

"Quinn, Principals' office. Santana are you okay?" Ms. Pillsbury asked. Santana nodded and the guidance counselor escorted the head cheerleader to the office. Santana turned to Rachel.

"How many fights are you planning on getting in?" Rachel asked. Santana shrugged.

"As many as it takes." Santana said. Rachel nodded. "I'm sorry." Santana whispered.

"Its okay." Noticing the girl was starting to cry, Rachel quickly led her to the nearby bathroom and locked the door.

"I'm sorry, Rachel." Santana cried as Rachel pulled her into a hug. The two girls slid to the floor and Santana continued crying. "I'm so sorry." she whispered.

"Shh... its okay. Its okay." Rachel whispered, stroking the Latina's hair.

"I just... picturing you two together like that... it made me so angry." Santana said.

"Its not true. I could never give myself to someone like that unless I was positive that they wanted me that way. And I especially wouldn't give it to someone I wasn't in a serious relationship with." Rachel said.

"You didn't... with Finn?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head. "You dodged a bullet there." Santana said. Rachel laughed.

"Good to know." she said. Santana looked down.

"I'm sorry I slept with Finn, Ray Bear." Santana said. Rachel kissed the top of Santana's hand.

"I know you are. Its okay, Sanny Bear." Rachel said. Santana shook her head. "Yes it is."

"I did it for my image. Sue said we had to date younger guys to stay on the Cheerios." Santana said. Rachel's brow furrowed.

"Finn's birthday is before yours..." she said.

"Yea, but he's an idiot. Anyway, I wanted to be head cheerleader and then Finn wouldn' tell anyone. When we were at the wedding, I tried to get him to tell you to break you two up because I wanted to have a chance with you, but he refused to tell you. When we were talking about our setlist for sectionals, I snapped. I think it was a mixture of anger at you guys for what you were saying, hurt for being called worthless, and selfishness for wanting you for myself." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"Its okay." Rachel said again. Santana put her head on Rachel's shoulder and sighed. "We'll be okay, San." Rachel said.

"Do you promise?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded.

"Yes. I promise." Rachel said. Santana nodded. "Let's get through the rest of the day. Something tells me Quinn won't be here for the rest of the day." Rachel said.

"I can't get in trouble for this morning, can I?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"I don't think so... but maybe I should go have a talk with Mr. Schue just in case." Rachel said.

"Are you going to use your oh-so-common threat of calling your dads friends in the gay community?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded and Santana laughed. Santana didn't see Quinn for the rest of the day and she didn't ge called to the office. When they got to Glee Club that day, Santana asked if she could sing something. She walked up to the front of the room. "I... uh... I want to dedicate this song to Rachel." Santana said, meeting the diva's eye and looking down with a shy smile.

"Excellent. Let's hear it." Mr. Schue said. Santana motioned for Brad to start playing and Santana waited for her cue. Once she started singing, Santana's eyes never left the diva's.

_For you, there'll be no more cryin'_  
><em>For you, the sun will be shinin',<em>  
><em>And I feel that when I'm with you,<em>  
><em>It's alright, I know it's right<em>

_And the songbirds are singing,_  
><em>Like they know the score,<em>  
><em>And I love you, I love you, I love you,<em>  
><em>Like never before.<em>

_And I wish you all the love in the world,_  
><em>But most of all, I wish it from myself.<em>

_And the songbirds keep singing,_  
><em>Like they know the score,<em>  
><em>And I love you, I love you, I love you,<em>  
><em>Like never before, like never before<em>  
><em>Like never before<em>

When Santana stopped singing Rachel had a huge smile on her face. She got up and hugged Santana. "That was beautiful, Sanny Bear. Thank you so much." Rachel whispered.

"Any time, Ray." Santana whispered back.


	7. Chapter 7

Santana was at her locker the next day after the final bell when she felt small arms circle her neck. The Latina girl instantly smiled as Rachel kissed her cheek. "Babe, are you okay?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded urged Satana to turn around. Santana laughed and resisted turning around just to mess with the diva.

"San!" Rachel whined. Santana laughed again and turned around.

"Calm down babe. What's got you so happy after the whole Quinn thing?" Santana asked. Rachel smiled widely.

"I'm glad you asked my dear. I auditioned for the lead in my next ballet recital and I got it!" Rachel said. Santana's jaw dropped.

"Are you serious?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded. "Oh my God! I'm so proud of you!" Santana said, grabbing Rachel into a hug and spinning her around. Rachel laughed as Santana put her back down. "Babe, that is so amazing. I'm so happy for you!" Santana said, pushing Rachel up against the lockers and kissing her. Rachel laughed and pulled away slightly.

"Wow... I never would have known that." Rachel said. Santana laughed and hugged Rachel.

"When's your recital?" Santana asked.

"Tonight." Rachel answered. Santana's brow furrowed.

"Why are you just telling me about this?" Santana asked.

"Well, I know how much you hate ballet, so I didn't think you'd want to come." Rachel said.

"What do you mean?" Santana asked. Rachel smiled.

"Just knowing that you're happy for me is enough." Rachel said, kissing Santana quickly. "I have to go. We don't have Glee today and I have last minute rehearsals before tonight. I'll call you later. Rachel asked. Santana nodded and watched as her girlfriend walked away. Brittany came up behind her.

"What's up, S?" Brittany asked. Santana turned around.

"I... Rachel told me that she just got the lead in her next ballet recital, but she told me that I don't have to come since I hate ballet." Santana said.

"But you _do_ hate ballet." Brittany said. Santana nodded.

"Yea, but I want to be there for my girlfriend." Santana explained. Brittany smiled.

"That's really sweet, S. Does that mean...?" Brittany trailed off.

"Does it mean... what?" Santana asked.

"Are you whipped?" Brittany whispered. Santana's eyes widened.

"Uh... no. But I want to support Rachel, even if that means sitting through a ballet recital." Santana said. Brittany nodded.

"Speaking of supporting, have you told Rachel that you're singing in that show thing?" Brittany asked. Santana shook her head. "Why not?"

"She's got enough on her mind. She needs to concentrate on herself right now." Santana said.

"S, the show is tomorrow." Brittany said.

"Her show is tonight." Santana said.

"But what if Rachel wants to hang out tomorrow night?" Brittany asked. Santana shrugged. "Let me tell her." Brittany said. Santana shook her head.

"No. She needs to concentrate on her recital right now. I'll just have my parents video tape the performance and show it to her later." Santana said. Brittany sighed.

"What if Rachel asks me? I can't lie, S." Brittany said.

"She shouldn't be asking you, because she shouldn't have any knowledge about it." Santana said, shutting her locker. "Not a word, B. Let's go to practice. Regionals are coming up and you know how Coach Sylvester gets." Santana said.

Later that night, Santana was in her room getting dressed and stared at the framed picture of her and Rachel from their first date. They had taken many pictures at the fair and Santana had them all around.

**_I'm putting on my shades __to cover up my eyes,_**  
><strong><em>I'm jumpin' in my ride, <em>**  
><strong><em>I'm heading out tonight,<em>**  
><strong><em>I'm solo, I'm riding solo, <em>**  
><strong><em>I'm riding solo, I'm riding solo, sooloooo.<em>**  
><strong><em>I'm feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine, <em>**  
><strong><em>I'm loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky.<em>**  
><strong><em>I'm solo, I'm riding solo, <em>**  
><strong><em>I'm riding solo, I'm riding solo, sooloooo.<em>**

She smiled as her phone rang and looked to see who was calling her.

**Incoming Call**

**Ray Bear**

"Hey Ray Bear. Are you okay? Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Santana asked

_"Yea. I just wanted to talk to you."_ Rachel said. Santana laughed.

"What'd you want to talk about?" Santana asked.

_"I was wondering if you wanted to get some dinner?"_ Rachel asked. Santana hesitated. _"Sanny Bear?"_

"Yea... yea I'm here... Listen, babe, I really want to, but I can't hang out tomorrow." Santana said.

_"Oh... that's cool."_ Rachel said, clearly disappointed.

"Babe, I'm sorry... I just... I have plans." Santana said.

_"What are you doing?"_ Rachel asked, curious. Santana really wanted to tell Rachel the truth, but she couldn't. _"Santana?"_ Rachel asked.

"Uh... I just... I have stuff to do." Santana said.

_"That's okay, San. You don't have to tell me."_ Rachel said. Santana frowned at the hurt in Rachel's voice.

"No, Ray... its cool. Uh... a couple of weeks ago, I auditioned for a showcase... its tomorrow night." Santana said.

_"Sanny, why didn't you tell me you auditioned?"_ Rachel asked.

"Well, at the time I still thought you were more interested Quinn than me. You were out on a date with Quinn that night, and it just never came up." Santana said.

_"Sweetie, I'm so sorry that you felt that you couldn't tell me. I'm so proud of you, Santana."_ Rachel said.

"Thanks, babe. Listen, you have fun at your recital and we'll go to dinner the night after tomorrow, okay?" Santana asked.

_"That sounds great, San."_ Rachel said.

"Bye Ray Bear." Santana said.

"Bye Sanny Bear." Rachel said, hanging up the phone.

Santana quickly finished getting ready and drove to the local theater hall, stopping to get some flowers on her way there. She'd picked up Brittany on her way, so she didn't have to sit by herself. Where there's Brittany, there's Artie, so the boy had tagged along as well. The three sat in the back of the theater, so that Artie could sit in the handicapped spot.

"Sorry about this, Santana. I know you wanted to sit in the front row." Artie said.

"Don't even worry about it. I can see perfectly from here and this way, it'll be even more of a surprise when I surprise her afterward. There's no way she can see me back here." the Latina assured the boy.

Santana motioned for the others to be quiet as the show started. Santana watched in amazement. She normally did hate ballet, but something about watching her girl perform so perfectly almost made her like it. She'd never actually like ballet, but she would watch Rachel dance at any recital she had. Santana was the first one clapping after the curtain dropped and the lights came back on. Brittany and Artie waited in the lobby as Santana went backstage to find her baby. She saw Rachel smiling as she recieved multiple congratulations from her fellow dancers and their families. Santana took a moment to take in the sight, but only a quick one. She made her way over to Rachel, but stayed out of the girl's mirror. "Excuse me, Ms. Berry?" Santana asked. Rachel turned around and the smile on her face, faltered slightly.

"Sanny?" Rachel said, the smile instantly coming back, only wider. Santana smiled softly and handed Rachel the flowers. Rachel turned to set the flowers down, but her table was full of them.

"Got enough flowers, Ray?" Santana teased. Rachel nodded. "Just set them down anywhere. You won't be able to tell the difference in ten minutes." Santana said. Rachel ignored her and set them on top.

"They're my favorites. Thank you, Santana." Rachel said, turning back around. Santana pulled the other girl into a hug. "What are you doing here?" Rachel asked.

"You aren't happy to see me?" Santana asked.

"I'm ecstatic, you should know that. But you hate ballet." Rachel said. Santana nodded.

"Maybe, but I wanted to be there for you. You were the lead dancer. Of course I was going to be here. And I'll be at all your other ballet recitals, no matter how much I hate ballet, because I'll be so proud of you no matter what. And by the way, watching you be so amazing outweighed whatever dislike I have for ballet. You were amazing, Rachel. Not that there was any question of whether or not you would be, but you were. I was so proud of you. I wanted so much to stand up and yell that you were my girlfriend and everyone that has ever made fun of you is just jealous, but... I didn't really think that would be okay with everyone else." Santana said, causing Rachel to laugh.

"Quinn never would have shown up." Rachel whispered just as Santana started to lean in. The Latina instantly pulled away, frowning.

"Why do you keep bringing her up?" Santana asked. Rachel frowned. "It makes me feel as if you're settling for me. You're always talking about how Quinn never would have done something..." Santana trailed off as Rachel reached up and pulled Santana down by the neck so that they were centimeters apart.

"Because I know that I made the right choice and you shouldn't worry about Quinn or anyone else." Rachel said. Santana nodded and Rachel kissed her. "You don't know how happy you've made me tonight. You showed up to something you hate just to support me. No one's ever done that for me and I'm so happy that I have you in my life. You're the best thing in my life, Sanny Bear." Rachel said. Santana smiled and leaned in. Just as she was about to kiss Rachel, a bunch of people started calling Rachel's name. "Sanny, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. Go get your applause. You deserve it. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Santana said. Rachel smiled and nodded. Santana leaned down, kissed her, and walked away, back to the lobby.

The next night, Santana had just finished performing (she sang _Valerie _and _Back to Black_), when she saw a person occupying the previously empty dressing room that was given to her. She stopped in the doorway as she saw her diva. "What are you doing here, Ray?" Santana asked.

"My girlfriend was performing. Where else would I be? I want to be there for you too, San." Rachel said. Santana smiled and kissed the girl. "I know your family and Britt are outside in the audience, but I wanted to be there first to say congratulations." Rachel said.

"You're amazing." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"So are you, baby." Rachel replied. Santana smiled widely. "You were made to sing Amy Winehouse." Rachel said as she hugged the Latina. "You were there for me. I'm here for you. This is a two-way relationship." Rachel said, kissing Santana.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Just something that was in my mind.**

* * *

><p>Rachel woke up to see the faces of Mercedes, Kurt, and Quinn. "What the hell happened?" Rachel asked. Quinn caressed Rachel's cheek. Rachel quickly slapped her hand away.<p>

"You fell and hit your head. Are you all right?" Quinn asked.

"Where's Santana?" Rachel asked.

"Why do you want Santana?" Kurt asked.

"Uh... she's my girlfriend?" Rachel said, frustrated. Anger flashed through Quinn's eyes.

"Rach, why do you keep talking about Santana? You chose _me_." Quinn said. Rachel's jaw dropped.

"What... what's going on here?" Rachel asked.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Two minutes before...<strong>_

Rachel was sitting in the choir room talking to Mercedes and Kurt the next day. Santana paused in the doorway, smiling at her girlfriend's figure, before walking in the room. "Hey Ray... how's it going?" Santana asked. Rachel whipped around with a smile on her face.

"Sanny!" Rachel said, jumping out of her chair. She was apparently a little too excited because when she tried to run down from the top of the risers, her foot caught on one of the legs of the chairs and she fell to the floor, hitting her head on the ground. Suddenly, everyone went black.

* * *

><p>Rachel jumped up from the ground. "I'll just wait for Santana. She has to come in eventually." Rachel said.<p>

"Actually, she quit Glee Club when you chose Quinn over her." Mercedes said.

"What?" Rachel exclaimed.

"Rach, forget about Santana!" Quinn said. Rachel ignored Quinn and ran out of the choir room in search of Santana. She spotted the Latina at her locker and ran over.

"Santana!" Rachel yelled, coming to a stop in front of the Latina. Santana looked over at Rachel, trying to cover up the mixture of hurt and excitement in her eyes.

"Berry." Santana greeted. That caught Rachel off guard.

"Since when did you go back to calling me Berry?" Rachel asked.

"Since you haven't talked to me since you chose Q over me. To what do I owe this honor?" Santana asked, leaning against the row of lockers.

"When did I choose Quinn over you?" Rachel asked. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Wow... uh... about a month and a half ago. What's wrong with you, Berry?" Santana asked.

"I don't know... I feel like I'm in a bad dream or something... Five minutes ago, I was waiting for you to come in the choir room and when you did I tripped over a chair leg and fell and hit my head. Now everyone's telling me that you're not my girlfriend and that you quit Glee Club." Rachel said.

"Well they're right. I'm not your girlfriend and I did quit Glee Club." Santana said.

"Rachel, are you okay? You ran out pretty fast." Quinn said, running up. She looked at Santana. "What did I say about talking to her Lopez?" Quinn asked. Santana rolled her eyes.

"Oh keep your chastity belt on. She came up to me Fabray." Santana said.

"Just leave her alone, Satan. She already told you that she wants me." Quinn said. Rachel looked up.

"Quinn, I can speak for myself." Rachel said. Santana smirked.

"Fine. Tell her, Rach." Quinn said. Rachel nodded.

"Santana, I'd like to talk to you at lunch. We can settle this whole thing." Rachel said. Quinn looked over at Rachel.

"Rach!" Quinn said. Santana smirked.

"I'm sure I can squeeze you in after school." Santana said, walking away. After school, Santana walked into the choir room to see Rachel sitting on the top riser. "Mr. Schue... I'd like to reauditon for Glee Club." Santana announced. The teacher nodded.

"You don't have to audition, Santana. We know you can sing." Mr. Schue said.

"I'd really like to, if that's okay." she said. He nodded. Her eyes never left Rachel's as she sang.

_He left no time to Regret_  
><em>Kept his lips wet<em>  
><em>With his same old safe bet<em>  
><em>Me and my head high<em>  
><em>And my tears dry<em>  
><em>Get on without my guy<em>

_You went back to what you knew_  
><em>So far removed from all that we went through<em>  
><em>And I tread a troubled track<em>  
><em>My odds are stacked<em>  
><em>I'll go back to black<em>

_We only said goodbye with words_  
><em>I died a hundred times<em>  
><em>You go back to her<em>  
><em>And I go back to<em>

_I go back to us._

_I love you much_  
><em>It's not enough<em>  
><em>You love blow and I love puff<em>  
><em>And life is like a pipe<em>  
><em>And I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside<em>

_We only said goodbye with words_  
><em>I died a hundred times you go back to her<em>  
><em>And I go back to<em>

_We only said goodbye with words_  
><em>I died a hundred times you go back to her<em>  
><em>And I go back to<em>

_Black, black, black, black, black, black, black,_  
><em>I go back to<em>  
><em>I go back to<em>

_We only said good-bye with words_  
><em>I died a hundred times<em>  
><em>You go back to her<em>  
><em>And I go back to<em>

_We only said good-bye with words_  
><em>I died a hundred times<em>  
><em>You go back to her<em>  
><em>And I go back to black<em>

By the time she finished singing, Quinn's eyes were furious. "Welcome back to the Glee Club, Santana!" Mr. Schue said. After rehearsals, Santana and Rachel hung back.

"I'm gonna hang back and talk to Santana." Rachel said to Quinn, who nodded and left the room.

"All right, what'd you want to talk about, Berry?" Santana asked. Rachel winced. "Are you okay?" Santana asked.

"I just have to get used to calling me Berry again. It hurts." Rachel said.

"Yea well, it hurts to be this close to you, but I can't help that." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"Santana, _you're_ the one that I want." Rachel said.

"You're not going to start singing _Grease_ are you?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"I don't want Quinn. I chose you." Rachel said. Santana glared at Rachel.

"What the hell makes you think you have the right to break my heart and then come back and play with it? You hurt me, Rachel! Do you want to know why I quit Glee Club? Because it hurt too damn much to have to see you and Quinn all over each other!" Santana exclaimed. Rachel tried to speak. "I would have told people about us, Rachel. I wouldn't have demanded we only come out to the Glee Club. But you didn't want me!" Santana yelled.

"Santana! I have no idea what's going on, but I know that I didn't choose Quinn. She was horrible to me!" Rachel yelled.

"Which still confuses me as to why you chose her over me. But I have to live with it. I apparently was to nice to you. I guess you're into girls who treat you like shit rather than a girl who was so sweet to you, and cared so much about you." Santana said. Rachel looked down.

"That's why I chose you." Rachel said, trying to grab Santana's arm. The Latina pulled away instantly.

"You don't get to do this to me. We're over. You made that very clear when you told me your choice. Please stop doing this to me!" Santana said, on the verge of tears.

"Santana!" Rachel said, crying. Quinn walked back in.

"What the hell did you do, Lopez?" Quinn yelled. Santana whipped around.

"I didn't do shit, Fabray. But you might want to have a conversation with your girlfriend. Just make sure no one else is watching, because you wouldn't want your cover to be blown, would you Quinnie?" Santana asked, running out of the room.

"Santana!" Rachel yelled, standing up. She tried to run after the Latina, but her foot caught on the chair leg and she fell, hitting her head on the floor. Suddenly everything went black.

* * *

><p>Santana ran to Rachel, who was lying on the floor unconcious. "Ray... Ray baby, wake up. Rachel, baby, you're scaring me. Please... baby please wake up... please <em>wake up<em>." Santana said, on the verge of tears. Rachel's eyes fluttered open. "Oh thank God." Santana whispered. Rachel saw Kurt, Mercedes, and Santana looking back at her.

"What happened the hell happened?" Rachel asked. Kurt laughed.

"You got a little excited to see your girlfriend and hit your head when you tripped." Kurt said.

"Quinn's in here?" Rachel asked. Santana looked up from where she was inspecting the bruise on Rachel's leg.

"What the hell did you just say?" Santana asked.

"Wait you're my girlfriend?" Rachel asked. Santana raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Sanny!" Rachel yelled, tackling the Latina to the ground and kissing her.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Santana asked, sitting up and hugging Rachel close to her. "Baby, what happened?" Santana asked softly.

"It was horrible. I woke up and it was the same scenario as now, only Quinn was my girlfriend and you had quit Glee Club because of it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, so, sorry! I didn't choose Quinn, I chose you, I promise!" Rachel rambled. Santana bit back her laughter.

"Sweetie, I know you didn't choose Quinn over me. Obviously you didn't choose Quinn, because I'm the one here with you. Ray, are you okay?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded and Santana noticed a huge bump on Rachel's head. "That's gonna hurt later, babe." Santana said, gently running a finger over the bump. Rachel shrugged and Santana kissed Rachel softy. "As long as you're okay, that's all that matters. to me. I mean, if you were to have chose Quinn over me then you really would have issues." Santana said. Rachel laughed and leaned into Santana.

"We'll take this as our cue to leave. Glad you're okay, Rachel." Mercedes said. Rachel nodded and smiled.

"I am too." Santana said. Rachel smiled. "When you were asking where Quinn was I was scared that you had a concussion or you realized that you actually wanted Quinn or something. I was terrified." Santana said. Rachel shook her head.

"Baby, I could _never_ choose Quinn over _you_. You're the one that I want." Rachel said.

"You aren't going to start singing _Grease_ are you?" Santana asked. Rachel laughed and shook her head.

"No. I think my mouth will be a little busy." Rachel said. Santana grinned and leaned down to kiss Rachel again.


	9. Chapter 9

Santana walked up behind Rachel, slipped her red Cheerios letterman jacket on her shoulders, and pulled the girl into her body. "Good morning, Rachel." she whispered. The diva put her hand over Santana's.

"It is now." she said. Santana grinned as Rachel turned around and leaned up against her locker.

"So how's my little Ray of Sunshine today?" Santana asked. Rachel grinned.

"Fantastic. What's up with you? And why did you put your Cheerios jacket on me?" Rachel asked. Santana looked down.

"I was hoping you could see it as a peace offering." Santana admitted.

"Peace offering for what?" Rachel asked. Santana looked up with a guilty expression.

"I kind of have to bail on lunch. Coach wants the Cheerios to meet up." Santana said.

"Why? I thought you said you guys had the _'California Girls'_ routine down." Rachel said. Santana rolled her eyes.

"We do. Its amazing. But once again, Sue Sylvester isn't satisfied. I guess we aren't in enough danger, what with the BMX riders doing tricks above our heads where they could easily slip and fall on us. Oh, and let's not forget the large amounts of fire that is so close to our bodies. Brittany accidentally knocked over one of the fire things and almost got burned on her leg." Santana said. Rachel gave her a sympathetic look and smiled.

"Its okay, San. I know that the Cheerios are your top priority right now." Rachel said. Santana shook her head.

"You will always be my top priority. Even if I had to leave Nationals right as we were about to perform, I would drop the Cheerios in a second if you needed me." Santana said.

"Really?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded. "Sanny Bear…" Rachel whispered. Santana grinned and kissed her.

"I know that right now isn't the ideal situation to be figuring out a routine for a relationship, but I promise that as soon as Regionals are over, all of my attention will be focused on you." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"Sounds like a plan… so why are you giving me your jacket just because you can't make lunch?" Rachel asked.

"Well, I know how much you love it when I hug you during lunch, so I figured that since I can't actually be there, I'd give you the next best thing." Santana said. Rachel smiled softly. "And when we're separated in class, when someone says something that hurts your feelings or makes you sad, just hug the jacket. Then tell me and you can hug the jacket again while I beat the crap out of them and then come back and you can have the real me." Santana continued.

"Nothing could replace the real you." Rachel breathed. Santana found herself at a loss for words.

"Well… okay then." she managed to get out. Rachel grinned, slipped the jacket on, and held out her hand. "Can I walk you to class?" she asked. Santana nodded and grabbed her girlfriend's hand. When they reached their English class, they saw Quinn waiting at the door. Rachel stepped closer to Santana and Quinn saw this.

"I'm not going to hurt either of you, Rachel. I really just want to talk to you." Quinn said. Santana shook her head.

"No way. That's not going to happen." Santana said, pulling Rachel even closer to her.

"San, let me talk to her." Rachel requested. Santana gave in.

"Fine. But I'm not going anywhere, Blondie. You can say it in front of me." Santana said. Quinn nodded.

"I just wanted to apologize for how I treated you and for what I said to you, Rachel. I have no explanation for why I treated you the way I did when we were seeing each other, but what I said… it was out of hurt. I know that that is no excuse, but it's the truth. I was hurt that you chose Santana over me and I wanted to hurt you… even more than I already had." Quinn said. Rachel looked elated at this, but Santana visibly had her reservations.

"How do I know you aren't just trying to get her back?" Santana asked.

"Because I can see how happy you two are and I wouldn't go after her when you two are still together. I've never seen you go for PDA… actually I have, but this is different." Quinn said. Santana smirked at the comment and Rachel glared up at her girlfriend.

"Fine. We can call a truce. But just know that the second I even think that you're trying to get her back, its off. I don't want to lose her and I'm not going to let you try to take her from me." Santana said. Quinn nodded.

"Why now, Quinn?" Rachel asked.

"I've wanted to for a few days, but I saw something this morning and I knew that Santana and I needed to be allies again." Quinn said. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"What'd you see? Was someone bullying Brittany again?" Santana asked. Quinn quickly shook her head, knowing how protective the Latina was over the blonde.

"No… nothing like that. I overheard this delivery guy looking for Coach Sylvester. He said he had a big package to deliver to her." Quinn said. Santana closed her eyes.

"Oh my God. Q, I'm going to need you to rephrase that, because you just put an unfortunate image in my mind and I want it gone." Santana said. Rachel grimaced as she caught on and began imagining her and Santana's make out session from the previous night to get the image out of her head. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, it was huge and Coach Sylvester looked ecstatic at the size of it." Quinn said.

"Oh my God. You totally did that on purpose." Santana said. Quinn smirked.

"Maybe." Quinn said as the bell rang.

"Okay can we just go inside and stop talking about that?" Rachel asked. Quinn and Santana laughed and walked inside. Taking their seats, Santana stared at Rachel from across the room. Their teacher had decided that allowing the students to choose their own seats was causing too much drama _(especially from Santana and Quinn),_ so he had made a seating chart, effectively splitting up the three girls. About halfway through class, things started going bad.

"Can anyone tell me what the message behind the first chapter of the book is?" Mr. Raymond asked. They had moved on from _'Romeo and Juliet'_ and were now onto _'Fellowship of the Ring.'_ A million awesome Hobbit jokes popped into Santana's head, but she now had no desire to use them towards Rachel as she would have before they'd began dating. She smiled adoringly as Rachel raised her hand. "Yes, Ms. Berry?" he asked. Before the girl could answer, a jock that sat two seats behind her spoke up.

"Well, that makes sense. Aren't you from the Shire, Rachel?" he asked. Santana glared at him as Rachel slowly put her hand down and sunk in her chair.

"Mr. Fields, see me after class. We'll have a discussion on respect. Ms. Berry, please continue." Mr. Raymond said. Rachel shook her head.

"Never mind." she said, her voice sounding small. Santana looked over at her, mentally trying to tell the girl to look her way. Rachel did and when she made eye contact with her girlfriend, Santana mouthed, _'Look in the pocket.'_ Confused, Rachel stuck her hands in the pockets of the Cheerios jacket she was wearing. She frowned as she pulled out a note and opened it. Rachel smiled as she began to read the note that her girlfriend had left for her.

_Ray, I know some jerk is going to say something to make you upset and I'm not going to be able to immediately make you feel better, so I hope this can at least soften the blow until I'm there to make the hurt go away. Don't listen to these Lima Losers. You're so much better than all of them and they know that. That is exactly why they pick on you, because they know that you're getting out of here and they're going to be stuck here. They're jealous of you, and not just because you're the one keeping me from being available ;). You're amazing, Rachel Berry. Don't ever forget that. :) - xoxo, San._

After Rachel finished reading it, she neatly folded it back up and looked back at Santana with a smile. _'Thank you._' she mouthed. Santana nodded in return. Throughout the next three classes, Rachel looked at that note every time someone said something to her. When the bell rang for lunch, Santana walked to her locker to meet Brittany before walking to the gym for Cheerios practice. Just as they were about to walk to the gym, Quinn walked up.

"Coach wants us on the football field in five minutes." she said.

"Crap. Its like 35 degrees outside." Santana said.

"Where's your Cheerios jacket?" Brittany asked.

"I gave it to Rachel to wear… oh wait. There she is. I'll be right back." Santana said, running to Rachel. "Ray… Give me my jacket." Santana said hurriedly. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"San, if you didn't want people to see me in your jacket, you shouldn't have let me wear it in the first place." Rachel said. Santana shook her head.

"You don't understand. Coach Sylvester wants to us to meet on the football field and its cold outside. I just need it back for lunch and then you can have it back." Santana explained. Rachel looked down.

"Sorry… I guess I'm still getting used to the thought of someone like you not being ashamed of being with someone like me." Rachel admitted. Santana smiled, kissed her forehead, and took her jacket.

"I'm proud to call you my girlfriend… but seriously, I have to go. I have like three minutes to get out there and you know how Coach Sylvester feels about tardiness." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"Go. I'll see you after lunch for Glee Club during free period." Rachel said. Santana nodded and ran off with Brittany and Quinn. Coach Sylvester revealed a big cannon. Santana and Quinn had to hide their smirk until it was revealed that Brittany was expected to fly out of the cannon.

"Don't worry. I'll talk to Mr. Schue." Quinn said. Santana felt her phone buzz.

**New Message**

**Ray**

**Get to the choir room. Now. **

"We need to go to the choir room." Santana said.


	10. Chapter 10

Santana, Brittany, and Quinn ran to the choir room and heard yelling. "What's going on?" Santana dared to ask. Rachel looked furious.

"There is no way that I'm sharing the choir room with a known homophobe!" Rachel yelled, referring to Karfosky.

"Hey, shut up Hobbit!" Karfosky yelled. Santana instantly slipped between them.

"Don't talk to her like that." Santana said. She turned back to Rachel, but the diva had already moved to sit down. "What is going on?" Santana repeated.

"Mr. Schue and Coach Bieste are making the football team join Glee Club." Mercedes said.

"There is no way I'm cool with that!" Santana yelled.

"Santana-" Mr. Schue said. Santana shook her head.

"No way. They make my girlfriend's life a living hell. This is the one place she can go where they don't bother her!" Santana said, moving to sit down next to Rachel and grab her hand, but the diva pulled away. Hurt, Santana moved her chair away from Rachel and faced forward. After a few minutes, Rachel looked over and noticed the distance.

"What's wrong?" Rachel whispered.

"I don't exactly like it when my girlfriend pushes me away." Santana said sharply. Rachel instantly wished she had the Latina's jacket.

"How was Cheerios?" she tried. The Latina looked over at her.

"Cheerios sucked." she answered.

"Why?" Rachel asked. Santana shook her head.

"You don't need to know." Santana answered. Rachel looked down.

"But you tell me everything." Rachel said. Santana shrugged.

"Not this time." she replied. When Glee Club was dismissed, Santana and Quinn immediately went to Mr. Schue.

"Mr. Schue, we need to talk. Coach Sylvester, she wants to fire Brittany out of a cannon." Quinn said.

"She wants to _what_?" he exclaimed. Rachel looked over in shock.

"I'll go talk to her. We'll get this sorted out Brittany." he said, leaving the room. Santana looked over and noticed the tiny brunette. Walking over, she put her jacket back on the diva.

"Hey." she whispered. Rachel looked up. "I'm sorry. I was just already upset about the cannon and then you pulled away and I got even more angry. I shouldn't have, but I did. I'm sorry." she said. Rachel nodded and leaned into Santana.

"I shouldn't have done that either." she whispered as Santana rubbed her back. "Are we okay?" she asked. Santana nodded.

"We're always okay. Nothing will ever come between us, Rachel." Santana promised. Rachel nodded and they went to their separate classes. Soon, the three Cheerios were called to Coach Sylvester's office.

"I have arranged for our Regionals competition to be moved to the same day as the Championship game. Schuester is making the Glee Club be the half-time performance. You three have to choose. Fabray, just remember how it was out of that Cheerios uniform last year. Pierce, you really think that teachers are going to pass you when you don't have me to protect you?" Coach Sylvester said. She turned to Santana. "And Lopez. Do you think that you'll be able to protect that diva of yours if you aren't on the Cheerios? And if that doesn't convince you, then this will. If you choose Glee over Cheerios, I will personally make her life miserable." Coach Sylvester said. Santana looked down at the letter of resignation that the Cheerios had been given. Simultaneously, the three signed them and went to the choir room, where the Glee Club was. Mr. Schue was explaining the situation to them. Rachel looked up in relief.

"Thank God. You chose us." Rachel said. Santana couldn't meet her girlfriend's eyes as Quinn handed Mr. Schue the form.

"We're sorry, Mr. Schue." Brittany whispered before the three walked out. Rachel ran after them.

"Santana!" Rachel yelled. Santana turned around. "Whatever happened to you always choosing me over the Cheerios?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not choosing them over you. I'm choosing them over Glee Club. I'm doing this to _protect_ you." Santana said.

"Really? Because you're _hurting_ me!" Rachel said.

"Sue said that if I chose Glee she would personally make your life miserable. I can't let that happen, Rachel." Santana said.

"You know what? Forget it. I'm over this." Rachel said. Santana's face fell.

"You're breaking up with me?" she asked. Rachel nodded. "Fine! Go back to Finn for all I care!" she yelled.

"Maybe I will." Rachel said, knowing that Santana wouldn't let her do that. Unfortunately, Finn chose that moment to walk out of the choir room. "You want me back, Rachel?" he asked. Rachel nodded, staring at Santana. Suddenly, he kissed her. When Rachel pulled away, Santana was gone. Two days later, the two hadn't spoken at all, but Santana had been forced to watch Finn shower Rachel with attention. They were standing in front of the bus, staring at the cannon.

"I can't do this." Quinn said suddenly. Santana looked over.

"We made a mistake, didn't we?" Santana asked. Quinn nodded.

"Britt? How do you feel?" Santana asked.

"I want to go back to Glee Club." she said.

"Let's go. We can still make the half-time show." Santana said as the three ran to the locker room.

"What are you guys doing here?" Rachel asked.

"We ditched the Cheerios. We're here to perform." Santana answered as she walked past to change. After they performed their mash up, Santana found herself standing next to Rachel.

"Thank you for doing this." Rachel said.

"It wasn't for you. It was for us. We couldn't deal with the Cheerios anymore. We love Glee Club more." Santana said, moving away. After she walked out of the locker room, she saw Finn and Quinn kiss. She waited until Finn was gone before she spoke. "What the hell are you doing, Quinn?" she asked.

"Kissing Finn." Quinn said.

"I am not going to let you hurt Rachel again." Santana hissed before walking away. The next day, Finn announced that he was setting up a kissing booth and Santana got the perfect idea. _'Finn Hudson, you're going to learn that you don't mess with Santana Lopez's girl.'_ she thought evilly.


	11. Chapter 11

Santana walked into the nurse's office and found a kid with mono. "Hi… I need to borrow your germs." she said before kissing him. She quickly made her way to Finn's ridiculous kissing booth and kissed him. As he pulled away, she smiled. "Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. If I have anything, I hope its not contagious." she said, walking away. She knew that Quinn and Finn were meeting in the auditorium again. And knew that they were going to kiss. She found Rachel in the choir room alone and walked in. "Hey." she said softly. Rachel looked in shock.

"What are you wearing?" she asked. Santana looked down at the candy striper outfit she had put on for some reason.

"Uh… Its for a skit. For drama class." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"You aren't in drama class. You're in art class." Rachel replied. Santana nodded.

"Right. Anyway, what are you up to?" Santana asked. Rachel shrugged.

"Finn and I were supposed to meet here about ten minutes ago, but I guess he forgot." Rachel said. Santana looked down

"I'm sure he had a good reason." Santana said. _'No he didn't.'_ she thought. Rachel nodded.

"Yea… anyway, things are back to normal. I'm with Finn, you get to hang out with Brittany… everyone's happy." Rachel said. Santana's face fell.

"You're happy with this?" Santana whispered before walking out before the girl could answer. The next day in Glee Club, Finn and Quinn looked awful.

"Mr. Schue, can I go to the nurse? I don't feel well." Finn said, raising his hand.

"Me either." Quinn said, clutching her head. "Let me guess. You're feverish and your glands are swollen?" Santana asked. Finn nodded.

"It sounds like you have mono. Otherwise known as the kissing disease. Which is weird because it sounds like Quinn has it too." Santana said.

"Did you guys kiss?" Rachel asked. Quinn nodded. "Finn…" she whispered. Finn looked over.

"We aren't even official, Rachel." Finn said. Rachel stood up.

"And we never will be. I'm done with you. Forever." Rachel said before storming out. When Santana went to Breadstix to hear Kurt's friend Blaine sing, she certainly didn't expect to see Rachel there.

"Can… Can I sit here?" Santana asked, pointing at the spot next to Rachel. The girl looked up and nodded, making room for Santana. They sat there awkwardly for a few moments. "I got you something…" Santana said. Rachel looked over in confusion.

"For me?" she asked. Santana nodded. "Before we broke up. I want you to have it." she continued. Rachel smiled and Santana pulled out a jewelry box and handed it to her. Rachel opened it to reveal a charm bracelet. She ran a finger over the different charms, inspecting each one of them. Santana watched as she looked at the musical note, the megaphone, the piano, the pom-pom, the two bears, the Ferris wheel, and the _R_ and _S_ charms. "Do you like it?" she whispered. Rachel looked up with tears in her eyes.

"I love it, Santana. Thank you. Can you help me put it on?" she asked. Santana nodded and held her breath as she put the bracelet on. Rachel looked up and met Santana's eyes before leaning in and softly kissing her. Neither girl noticed the Warblers beginning to sing.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Santana said as she pulled away and watched the group sing. Soon, she felt something being put in front of her. She looked down and saw a jewelry box and a wrapped box. Opening the jewelry box first, she saw necklace that read _'Santana'_ on it. "Its beautiful. Thank you." Santana said, motioning for Rachel to put it on her. When it was on, she opened the other one. It was a picture frame with a picture of the two of them. It looked as if Rachel had glued it onto a piece of construction paper to give it a border, and underneath it she had written, _'Will you be my Valentine? -xoxo, Ray.'_ Santana looked over at Rachel.

"I made that this afternoon when I got home." Rachel admitted. Santana smiled.

"I thought you were mad at me." Santana said. Rachel nodded

"I was, but then you did that for me." Rachel said. Santana looked confused.

"Did what?" Santana asked. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh so it was a coincidence that you immediately knew their symptoms?" Rachel asked. Santana blushed.

"Thank you for doing that, Santana." Rachel said. The girl nodded

"I'll be your valentine, Ray Bear. I'll always be your valentine." Santana whispered, putting her arm around Rachel and kissing her diva again. The Warblers began singing _'Silly Love Songs.'_ Blaine moved in front of Puck and Lauren.

"_Love doesn't come in a minute_!" he sang. He moved in front of Santana and Rachel. "_Sometimes it doesn't come at all._" he sang. Santana frowned and pulled Rachel closer to her. The diva laughed and turned Santana's head so it was facing her. Santana kissed her.

"Obviously, that's a lie, because I've been in love with you for a while." Santana whispered. Rachel's eyes went wide.

"You love me?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded. "This Valentine's Day is amazing… we got back together, its our one month anniversary, and you love me." she whispered. Santana nodded.

"Do you know what would make it even more amazing? If I wasn't alone in this whole being in love thing." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"I love you too." Rachel said as Santana kissed her. "Happy Anniversary." she whispered, leaning closer to Santana.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Santana replied as Rachel rested her head on the Latina's shoulder, only to have it quickly lift up.

"I'm not going to get mono, am I?" she asked. Santana laughed and shook her head.

"You'll be fine, my love." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"I love the sound of that." Rachel said. Santana nodded.

"So do I." Santana said. "So do I." The two girls smiled and watched the rest of the performance.


	12. Chapter 12

Santana found Rachel at her locker the next day between fourth and fifth periods and immediately walked over. Before she could say anything, Rachel looked over with a smile that immediately grew when she saw Santana. "You know, I am really loving this whole you being off the Cheerios thing." Rachel said as Santana hugged her.

"Why's that?" Santana asked. She honestly was confused. She would have thought that Rachel would have wanted someone with buzz at the school. Someone who could protect her from jerks like Azimio and Karfosky.

"Because I get to see you wearing normal clothes. It's a nice change. And I get to see more of you, because you don't have to go to Cheerios practice." Rachel said.

"That reminds me, are you still coming over to my house later to hang out with me and Brittany?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded.

"Of course I am. I want to meet your parents." Rachel answered. Santana closed her eyes. "San, we've been together a month. You've met my dads, so why can't I meet your parents?" Rachel asked.

"Ray…" Santana trailed off.

"Do you not want them to know that you're gay?" Rachel asked. Santana shook her head.

"They already know." she replied. Rachel nodded.

"So its me that you don't want them to know about." Rachel said. Santana's jaw dropped.

"What? No, babe, that's not true. You know that's not true. Its them. My mom, she's one of those hostesses that kind of hover over you the first time you're in the house. And while its really sweet and I totally love it because she's fawns over everyone and I usually get awesome food and stuff without actually having to get up and get it myself, I don't want you to get freaked out or anything, because that's not the type of Lopez that you're used to." Santana explained to her girlfriend. Rachel smiled.

"Sanny, you shower me with attention all the time." Rachel pointed out. Santana nodded.

"Yea, but that's because you're my girlfriend and you deserve that. And anyway, what I do is nothing compared to my mother." Santana said.

"What about your dad?" Rachel asked. Santana shrugged.

"My dad is my dad. He's… intense when I bring new people over. Doesn't really like change or anything out of order. Kind of like… well, you. Hey, maybe you two will get along." Santana said, earning a laugh from Rachel. "The only friend that he hasn't completely grilled the first time they came over was Brittany. And that's only because we were like three the first time she came over and she hasn't really left since, so… she's more like family than a friend." Santana continued.

"Isn't your dad in the army?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded.

"He's a Major." Santana answered. Rachel nodded.

"Look, you can meet them, all right? If its that important to you, you can meet them tonight, okay?" Santana said, smiling as Rachel's face lit up.

"Thank you, Sanny!" Rachel said.

"Anything for you, Ray." Santana said, walking away. "What's up, B?" Santana said as Brittany walked up.

"S, people are looking at me weird." Brittany whispered. Santana laughed.

"Its probably because they're so used to seeing you in a Cheerios uniform and you're wearing regular clothes now that you aren't on the Cheerios anymore." Santana explained.

"Or maybe its because they realized that Lord Tubbington is really from the pod people. I think that's why he's so fat." Brittany said. Santana shook her head.

"I doubt it. He's fat because you only feed him human food… and not even healthy food. I saw you feed that cat Taco Bell and let it drink Mountain Dew the other day." Santana reasoned.

"Well, I put him on Atkins, so that should help." Brittany argued. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Even if you should be putting your cat on Atkins, it would only work if you stopped feeding him all that unhealthy food." Santana reasoned. Brittany huffed.

"Sandra and Major would agree with me." Brittany said. Santana laughed.

"No they wouldn't. And anyway, why do you insist on calling my dad Major? You've known him forever and he's told you numerous times to call him by his first name." Santana said. Brittany's brow furrowed.

"I thought Major was his first name." Brittany said. Santana paused before carrying on. "Anyway, we can ask them tonight at dinner. Its pizza night, right?" Brittany asked. Santana nodded.

"Hey heads up, Rachel wants to do the whole family meet and greet thing, so… don't be all over my parents like you normally do, okay? Let them get to know Rachel. Spend some time with Junior." Santana said, speaking of her nine year old little brother that Brittany adored. Brittany nodded.

"But can I at least ask them about the Atkins thing?" Brittany asked. Santana smiled.

"Yea, B. Go ahead." Santana said as her phone rang.

**Incoming Call**

**Ray Bear**

"Hey. What's up?" she asked.

_"Did I leave that note that you wrote me in your Cheerios jacket?"_ Rachel asked.

"No… it wasn't in there when I got my cell phone out of there when I got home from the Championship game. Why?" Santana asked.

_"I can't find it… and its start to bug me because its like the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."_ Rachel said frantically.

"Ray… Rachel, calm down. Its okay. I can write you another one, its okay." Santana said. Rachel huffed.

_"But I want the original one!"_ Rachel argued. Santana smiled.

"I'm sure you just misplaced it in your binder or something. We'll look for it later, I promise." Santana said. Rachel sighed.

_"I guess."_ Rachel said.

"Okay. I'll see you after school, okay?" Santana said. She could hear Rachel nod against her phone.

_"After school. I can't wait."_ Rachel said. Santana couldn't help but allow the grin that was threatening to slide across her face do so.

"Me either. Its going to be awesome, I promise Ray." Santana said. Down the hall from the diva, someone was watching her carefully.

"You'll be mine soon, Rachel Berry." the person whispered, snapping pictures of her.


	13. Chapter 13

Rachel walked up the steps to the Lopez house. Before she could ring the doorbell, Santana swung the door open. "Hey!" she said, with a smile on her face. Rachel smiled.

"Hi." she said, hugging Santana.

"I missed you." Santana whispered. Rachel giggled.

"I saw you in Glee Club two hours ago." Rachel said.

"So? Did you find your note?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded.

"It was in my locker after the last bell. It was weird. I could have sworn it wasn't in there when I checked." Rachel said. Santana shrugged.

"At least you found it." she said. Rachel nodded.

"Santana, are you just going to make her stand out there?" a man walked up to the door. "You must be Rachel." he said. Rachel nodded slowly. Santana could tell that her girlfriend was getting scared from her father's intense gaze.

"Dad, lay off with the stare. This is my girlfriend, not one of your soldiers." Santana said. Her father nodded.

"I'm sorry. I'm Major Mateo Lopez. You can call me Mateo. Come in." he said, smiling at Rachel. She nodded and entered. Santana glared at her father before following Rachel.

"Brittany is upstairs already, but you wanted to meet my mom, right?" Santana asked.

"Yes, that'd be great." Rachel said.

"Mom! Rachel's here!" Santana yelled.

"Santana, take her into the kitchen to meet your mother." Mateo said. Santana grabbed Rachel's hand and led her into the kitchen.

"Mom, this is Rachel. She's my-"

"Your girlfirend. Rachel, its great to finally meet you. I'm Sandra Lopez. You can call me Sandra." she said, hugging Rachel.

"Its nice to meet you too." Rachel said.

"Do you need anything to drink? We have water, soda, juice-"

"Mom, she's fine. We're just going to go upstairs." Santana said, taking Rachel upstairs. "Get out of the way, brat." Santana said to the boy in front of them.

"Shut up Satan. Who's that?" he asked.

"I'm Rachel."

"Can you move, please?" Santana asked. He rolled his eyes and walked away. "That was my little brother, Mateo Jr. We just call him Junior. Anyway, my room is right there. I told my parents to get you a vegetarian pizza, by the way."

"Thank you." Santana smiled and closed her door. "So... how've you been?" she asked. Santana smiled.

"You know that I'm sad when you aren't around, babe." Santana said. Rachel rolled her eyes and smiled at Brittany. "Ray, are you okay?" Santana asked.

"I don't know... I've had the feeling that somene's been watching me all day and its kind of freaking me out, you know?" Rachel said.

"I'm sure you're just paranoid." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"I'm sure you're right. Thank you." Rachel said. Santana nodded.

"Anytime. Let's go eat." Santana said, smiling as they walked downstairs.

"So, Rachel, what are your hobbies?" Sandra asked as they finished eating.

"Singing, dancing, acting, and talking." Santana said, grinning at her girlfriend.

"The first three." Rachel said.

"Do you play sports?" Mateo asked.

"No... I was never really into sports." Rachel said. He looked at Santana.

"Is that why you quit Cheerios?" he asked.

"Dad!"

"Mateo!" Rachel looked down at her plate.

"Dad, I quit Cheerios because Coach Sylvester tried to shoot Britt out of a cannon and kill her." Santana said, grabbing Rachel's hand.

"Rachel, I'm sorry. I don't know why I asked that." Mateo said.

"Its okay." Rachel said. There was an awkward silence.

"Major? Sandra? Santana told me I shouldn't have put Lord Tubbington on Atkins." Brittany said.

"She fed the cat Taco Bell!" Santana said.

"Britt, I'm gonna say that's not a good idea." Mateo said. Santana shot Brittany a smug smile.

"Santana, don't antagonize Brittany." Sandra said. Brittany smiled. '_Brat'_ Santana mouthed.

'_You know it._' Brittany mouthed.

"Look, why don't you girls go up to Santana's room while we do the dishes." Sandra said. Rachel walked ahead of Brittany and Santana, who were still arguing over the cat issue. They sat on the bed and still arguing. Rolling her eyes, Rachel leaned over and kissed Santana. Smiling, she pulled away as her phone beeped. Checking the message, Rachel jumped off the bed, screaming.

"Rachel! Rachel, what's wrong?" Santana yelled over the screaming. Rachel couldn't speak, but only pointed at her phone. Brittany picked up the phone, looked at it, and screamed as well before showing it to Santana. "Oh my god!" Santana screamed. Her parents and brother ran in.

"What's wrong?" Sandra asked.

"Someone just sent Rachel a picture of us kissing. It was taken through my bedroom window!" Santana yelled.

"What?" her mother asked.

"Someone is watching us!" Santana said. Santana's computer beeped, notifying her that she had an email. When she opened it a video came up. "Hold up... oh my god this is a live feed. Someone is video taping us!"

"Santana, take Brittany, Rachel, and your brother down to the basement and lock the door. Sandra, call the police. I'm gonna look for this creep." Mateo said. The four kids ran downstairs, Santana locking the door behind them.

"Ray, are you okay?" Santana asked, taking the shook up girl in her arms.

"I told you someone was watching me." Rachel said.

"I know. Its crazy." Santana whispered. They heard sirens and the front door slamming.

"Kids, you guys can come back upstairs. Its okay." Sandra said. Cautiously, they went back upstairs and into the dining room. "Do you know this boy?" she asked. Santana looked over and saw Jacob Ben-Israel.

"Jew Fro, you little creep! What the fuck are you doing spying on my girl?"

"Language, Santana." Sandra chastised.

"He's spying on my girlfriend through my bedroom window!" Santana said.

"Finn paid me." Jacob said.

"When?"

"Yesterday." he said.

"Finn's in the hospital with mono, idiot." Santana said.

"Fine. I want Rachel. Santana doesn't deserve her." Jacob said. Santana surged forward, but her father caught her.

"Says the stalker who video tapes her through windows." Santana said. An officer walked in.

"Major Lopez, you may choose to press charges against him." he said.

"Oh, hell yea!" Santana said.

"That won't be necessary." he said. Santana looked up. "Not this time. If I catch you spying into my daughter's room again, I won't be so generous." he continued.

"But Dad!" Santana said.

"Not up for discussion." Santana glared at the boy.

"See you in school tomorrow, Jew Fro." she said.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: This chapter is going to cover a few days and two Glee assignments:**

**1. Choose three country songs and dedicate them to someone in the Glee Club. Two can be dedicated to the same person, third one has to be different.**

**2. Split into prechosen (by Mr. Schue) groups and sing two songs about sex (pretty much any rap song today.) Yea, I know that that can never be good, but I promise no drama will erupt from these assignments Besides, Quinn and Finn are still out with mono and they start most of the Glee Club drama. (If it weren't for Quinn cheating on Sam with Finn, Santana wouldn't have had to innocently spread mono around the school. If Quinn hadn't told Sue about Santana's boob job, Santana wouldn't have had to fight Quinn in _Audition_. And if Finn hadn't slept with Santana in the first place, she wouldn't have had to blurt it out to Rachel in _Special Education_. Santana's not the one at fault here! lol) **

**Anyway, i****ts pretty much just a bunch of fluff. I wanted to have some happiness in their lives before the drama that can only follow an angry Latina beating the crap out of her girlfriend's stalker. :) Enjoy. **

**By the way, for all intents and purposes, Jacob is either not at school or very good at hiding from Santana.**

**Oh yea, and I did have to change the lyrics to some of the songs simply to fit the characters. I bolded the parts I changed.**

**I DON'T OWN GLEE OR ANY OF THE SONGS I MENTION OR USE**

* * *

><p>Santana walked into the choir room with fury written all over her face. Rachel raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong with you?" she asked.<p>

"Jew Fro has been dodging me all day."

"Santana, you can't kill him on school property." Rachel said. Santana smirked at her girlfriend.

"Maybe we should cool off for a bit. You know me way to well." Santana said, squeezing her hand to confirm that she was only joking.

"Okay guys. Who wants to sing first." Mr. Schue said. Their assignment that week was to find three country songs to sing to members of the Glee Club. Two of them could be dedicated to the same person, but the third had to be to someone new. Santana smiled at Rachel and raised her hand. "Go ahead, Santana." he said as she walked to the front.

"Obviously, this one is for Rachel." she said, smiling at her girlfriend again before turning the band. "Hit it."

_Since the day they got married_  
><em>He'd been praying for a little baby boy<em>  
><em>Someone he could take fishing<em>  
><em>Throw the football, be his pride and joy<em>  
><em>He could already see him holding that trophy<em>  
><em>Taking his team to state<em>  
><em>But when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket<em>  
><em>All those big dreams changed<em>

Santana pulled Rachel to the front of the classroom as she sang and sat her on the stool that was in the middle of the choir room

_And now, he's wrapped around her finger_  
><em>She's the center of his whole world<em>  
><em>And his heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, perfect<em>  
><em>All American girl<em>

Santana moved so she was standing behind Rachel and moved to rest her arm on the diva's shoulder.

_Sixteen short years later_  
><em>She was falling for the <strong>hot Cheerio<strong> star_

Rachel rolled her eyes and smiled up at her girlfriend.

_Before you knew it **she was dropping flyers**_  
><em>Skipping practice just to spend more time with <strong>her<strong>_  
><em>The coach said, hey<strong> girl<strong> what's your problem_  
><em>Tell me have you lost your mind<em>  
><em>Daddy said you'll lose your free ride to college<em>  
><em><strong>Girl<strong>, you better tell her goodbye_

_But now, **she's** wrapped around her finger_  
><em><strong>She's<strong> the center of her whole world_  
><em>And <strong>her<strong> heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, perfect_  
><em>All American<em>

_And when they got married and decided to have one of their own_  
><em>She said, be honest, tell me what you want<em>  
><em>And <strong>she<strong> said, honey you outta know_

_A sweet, little, beautiful one just like you_  
><em>I want a beautiful, wonderful, perfect All American Girl<em>

Santana moved so that she was looking into Rachel's eyes.

_Now, **I'm** wrapped around her finger_  
><em>She's the center of<strong> my<strong> whole world_  
><em>And <strong>my<strong> heart belongs to that sweet, little, beautiful, perfect_  
><em>All American girl<em>

_All American girl_

Everyone clapped when Santana finished singing, especially Rachel. "That was amazing, Sanny Bear." Rachel whispered as she hugged the Latina. Santana smiled and squeezed back. "Mr. Schuester? I'd like to go next." Rachel said. Santana grinned and sat down waiting to see what her girlfriend came up with. "As you all probably guessed, I'm dedicating this song to my wonderful girlfriend, Santana." Rachel said, smiling shyly. Santana returned the shy smile. She was expecting the dedication, but actually hearing it was something different. A good different. Rachel held out her hand. "San, come back up here." Rachel said, leading her to a chair. Rachel sat in the chair and motioned to the band. "Hit it."

_I was riding shotgun_  
><em>with my hair undone<em>  
><em>in the front seat of <strong>her<strong> car_  
><em><strong>She's<strong> got a one-hand feel_  
><em>on the steering wheel<em>  
><em>The other on my heart<em>  
><em>I look around, turn the radio down<em>  
><em><strong>She<strong> says, "Baby is something wrong?"_  
><em>I say, "Nothing,<em>  
><em>I was just thinking<em>  
><em>how we don't have a song"<em>  
><em>And <strong>she<strong> says..._

_Our song is the slamming screen doors,_  
><em>Sneakin' out late, tapping on your window<em>  
><em>When we're on the phone and you talk real slow<em>  
><em>'cause it's late and <strong>your daddies<strong> don't know_  
><em>Our song is the way you laugh<em>  
><em>The first date "Man, I didn't kiss her, and I should have" <em>

Santana looked down and laughed as Rachel emphasized that part, looking directly at her

_And when I got home ... before I said amen_  
><em>Asking God if he could play it again<em>

Rachel got up and walked around while singing

_I was walking up the front porch steps after everything that day_  
><em>Had gone all wrong<em>  
><em>and been <strong>slushied<strong> on_  
><em>And lost and thrown away<em>  
><em>Got to the hallway,<em>  
><em>well on my way<em>  
><em>to my lovin' bed<em>  
><em>I almost didn't notice<em>  
><em>all the roses<em>  
><em>And the note that said...<em>

_Our song is the slamming screen doors,_  
><em>Sneakin' out late, tapping on your window<em>  
><em>When we're on the phone and you talk real slow<em>  
><em>'cause it's late and <strong>your daddies<strong> don't know_  
><em>Our song is the way you laugh<em>  
><em>The first date "Man, I didn't kiss her, and I should have"<br>__And when I got home ... before I said amen_  
><em>Asking God if he could play it <em>

_I've heard every album, listened to the radio_  
><em>Waited for something to come along<em>  
><em>That was as good as our song...<em>

Rachel stood directly behind Santana and wrapped her arms around the Latina's shoulders, who immediately put her hands on Rachel's and smiled as she sang softly

_'Cause our song is the slamming screen door,_  
><em>Sneakin' out late, tapping on <strong>her<strong> window_  
><em>When we're on the phone and <strong>she<strong> talks real slow_  
><em>'cause it's late and <strong>her daddy <strong>don't know_  
><em>Our song is the way <strong>she<strong> laughs_  
><em>The first date "Man, I didn't kiss <strong>her<strong>, and I should have."_  
><em>And when I got home ... before I said amen<em>  
><em>Asking God if he could play it again<em>

_I was riding shotgun with my hair undone_  
><em>In the front seat of <strong>her<strong> car_  
><em>I grabbed a pen and an old napkin<em>  
><em>And I wrote down our song<em>

Santana smiled as she clapped

* * *

><p>The next day, Santana was still unable to find Jacob. However, when Mr. Schue asked who wanted to sing their second song, she instantly raised her hand again. She found that she loved being able to sing to Rachel, even if it made her look like a total wimp.<p>

"So... yea. This is too Rachel again, just 'cause I love you." she said. She ignored the laughs she got from Puck and Lauren. The look on Rachel's face made it worth it. This time, Santana sat on a stool, motioning for Puck to come up and join her with his guitar.

_A woman is mystery_  
><em><strong>Some people<strong> can't understand_  
><em>Sometimes all it takes to please her<em>  
><em>Is the touch of your hand<em>  
><em>And other times you gotta take it slow<em>  
><em>And hold her all night long<em>  
><em>Heaven knows there's so many ways<em>  
><em><strong>A girl<strong> can go wrong_

_Must be doin' something right_  
><em>I just heard you sigh<em>  
><em>You leaned into my kiss<em>  
><em>And closed those deep blue need you eyes<em>  
><em>Don't know what I did<em>  
><em>To earn a love like this, but baby, I<em>  
><em>Must be doin' something right<em>

_Anywhere you wanna go _  
><em>Baby, show me the way<em>  
><em>I'm open to suggestions<em>  
><em>Mmm, whatever you say<em>  
><em>Tonight's about giving you<em>  
><em>What you want, whatever it takes<em>  
><em>Girl, I hope I'm on the right road<em>  
><em>And judging by the smile on your face<em>

_Must be doin' something right_  
><em>I just heard you sigh<em>  
><em>You leaned into my kiss<em>  
><em>And closed those deep blue need you eyes<em>  
><em>Don't know what I did<em>  
><em>To earn a love like this, but baby, I<em>  
><em>Must be doin' something right<em>

_Ah, Baby_  
><em>Mmm...<em>

_I don't know what I did_  
><em>To earn a love like this, but baby, I<em>  
><em>Must be doin' something right<em>  
><em>Must be doin' something right<em>

Rachel grinned as she clapped. "Rachel, I'm assuming you'd like to go next." Mr. Schue said. Rachel nodded and forced Santana to sit in the front row before walking up.

"Let me guess. Santana." Mercedes said, grinning. Rachel smiled and nodded.

"Hit it." she said.

_You were in college working part time waitin' tables_  
><em>Left a small town, never looked back<em>  
><em>I was a flight risk with a fear of fallin'<em>  
><em>Wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts<em>

_I say "Can you believe it?_  
><em>As we're lying on the couch?"<em>  
><em>The moment I can see it.<em>  
><em>Yes, yes, I can see it now.<em>

_Do you remember, we were sitting there by the water?_  
><em>You put your arm around me for the first time.<em>  
><em>You made a rebel of a <strong>careless girl's<strong> careful daughter._  
><em>You are the best thing that's ever been mine.<em>

_Flash forward and we're taking on the world together,_  
><em>And there's a drawer of my things at your place.<em>  
><em>You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded,<em>  
><em>You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes.<em>

_But we got bills to pay,_  
><em>We got nothing figured out,<em>  
><em>When it was hard to take,<em>  
><em>Yes, yes, this is what I thought about.<em>

_Do you remember, we were sitting there, by the water?_  
><em>You put your arm around me for the first time<em>  
><em>You made a rebel of a <strong>careless girl's<strong> careful daughter_  
><em>You are the best thing that's ever been mine.<em>

_Do you remember all the city lights on the water?_  
><em>You saw me start to believe for the first time<em>  
><em>You made a rebel of a <strong>careless girl<strong> careful daughter_  
><em>You are the best thing that's ever been mine.<em>

_Oh, oh, oh_

_And I remember that fight_  
><em>Two-thirty AM<em>  
><em>As everything was slipping right out of our hands<em>  
><em>I ran out crying and you followed me out into the street<em>  
><em>Braced myself for the "Goodbye"<em>  
><em>'cause that's all I've ever known<em>  
><em>Then you took me by surprise<em>  
><em>You said, "I'll never leave you alone."<em>

_You said, "I remember how we felt sitting by the water_  
><em>And every time I look at you, it's like the first time<em>  
><em>I fell in love with a <strong>careless girl's<strong> careful daughter_  
><em>She is the best thing that's ever been mine."<em>

_Hold on, make it last_  
><em>Hold on, never turn back<em>

_You made a rebel of a **careless man's** careful daughter_  
><em>You are the best thing that's ever been mine.<em>  
><em>(Hold on) Do you believe it?<em>  
><em>(Hold on) Gonna make it now.<em>  
><em>(Hold on) I can see it,<em>  
><em>(Yes, yes) I can see it now.<em>

Santana smiled brightly as Rachel sat back down. "I think you managed to make me love you even more than I did before." she whispered.

* * *

><p>"This one's for Brittany. Hit it." Santana said, smiling at her best friend.<p>

_I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,_  
><em>And each road leads you where you want to go,<em>  
><em>And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,<em>  
><em>I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.<em>  
><em>And if one door opens to another door closed,<em>  
><em>I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,<em>  
><em>If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,<em>

_But more than anything, more than anything,_  
><em>My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,<em>  
><em>Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,<em>  
><em>You never need to carry more than you can hold,<em>  
><em>And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,<em>  
><em>I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,<em>  
><em>Yeah, this, is my wish.<em>

_I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,_  
><em>All the ones who love you, in the place you left,<em>  
><em>I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,<em>  
><em>And you help somebody every chance you get,<em>  
><em>Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,<em>  
><em>And you always give more than you take.<em>

_But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,_  
><em>My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,<em>  
><em>Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,<em>  
><em>You never need to carry more than you can hold,<em>  
><em>And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,<em>  
><em>I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,<em>  
><em>Yeah, this, is my wish.<em>

_My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,_  
><em>Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,<em>  
><em>You never need to carry more than you can hold,<em>  
><em>And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,<em>  
><em>I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,<em>  
><em>Yeah, this, is my wish.<em>

_This is my wish_  
><em>I hope you know somebody loves you<em>  
><em>May all your dreams stay big<em>

Santana was greeted with a huge hug when she finished singing and smiled as she hugged her best friend. "Luv ya, B." she whispered.

"Luv ya, S."

Rachel stood up as they sat down. "This song is for Finn, even though he's not here." she said. Santana raised an eyebrow. "Hit it." she said, giving the Latina an apologetic smile as she sang the first line.

_No Good, Two Timin', Lies comin' outta your mouth. _  
><em>Cheatin', mistreatin' games that you play brought you down. <em>  
><em>Broke my heart, tore it apart, look who's got the last laugh now. <em>  
><em>Don't you come crawlin' begging please on your knees, baby if you're missin' me. <em>

_Well, you can hear me on the radio! _  
><em>You wanna turn me on, turn on your stereo. <em>  
><em>You can sing along, while they're playin' our song. How you done me wrong... <em>  
><em>Baby crank it up! <em>  
><em>Until you blow the speakers out your Chevy truck. <em>  
><em>So listen Romeo, when you're feelin' kinda lonely, let me tell you where to go. <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio! <em>

_Try to call, twitter me, text until your fingers bleed. _  
><em>Oh! The DJ's the only way you're ever gonna hear from me. <em>  
><em>If you're reminiscing, and you're missin me this much, and you really wanna stay in touch. <em>

_Well, you can hear me on the radio! _  
><em>You wanna turn me on, turn on your stereo. <em>  
><em>You can sing along, while they're playin' my song. How you done me wrong... <em>  
><em>Baby crank it up! <em>  
><em>Until you blow the speakers out your Chevy truck. <em>  
><em>So listen Romeo, when you're feelin' kinda lonely, let me tell you where to go. Oh <em>

_Turn On The Radio! _  
><em>Whoaaoooa! <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio! <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio <em>  
><em>Oh!Oh!OhOhOh!Oh!Ohh! <em>

_Oh! You can hear me on the radio! _  
><em>You wanna turn me on, turn on your stereo. <em>  
><em>You can sing along, while they're playin' my song. How you done me wrong... <em>  
><em>Baby crank it up! <em>  
><em>Until you blow the speakers out your Chevy truck. <em>  
><em>So listen Romeo, when you're feelin' kinda lonely, let me tell you where to go. <em>  
><em>When you're feelin' kinda lonely. <em>

_Turn On The Radio! _  
><em>Turn On The Radio! <em>  
><em>Turn On, Turn On The Radio! <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio! <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio, Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Ohhh! <em>  
><em>Turn On The Radio!<em>

* * *

><p>This week, they were to sing songs about sex. Mr. Schue had split them into groups:<p>

**Group One:** Artie, Puck, Mike, and Santana  
><strong>Group Two:<strong> Brittany, Tina, and Rachel  
><strong>Group Three:<strong> Kurt, Mercedes, Lauren, and Sam

**Group One **was to perform their two songs first, followed by **Group Two**, and after that, **Group Three**.

Santana grinned at Rachel as she stood on the stage in the auditorium, wearing the hip-hop outfit that she'd chosen when they'd decided on costumes. She gave Rachel a flirty wave that said that every word she sang was to the diva, before getting in position. "Hit it!" she called when she got the nod from everyone else.

_[Artie]_  
><em>Go hey Lil Mama<em>  
><em>I can transform ya <em>  
><em>No I can't dance but I can dance on ya<em>  
><em><strong>Puck<strong> on the beats _  
><em><strong>Chang<strong> move ya feet _  
><em>And baby I can transform ya him to a me<em>  
><em>I can change your life <em>  
><em>Make it so new make you never wanna go back to the old you <em>  
><em>Ciroc and lime give it a lil time<em>  
><em>And she gon transform like Optimus Prime<em>

_[Santana]_  
><em>Need a ride I can range you up<em>  
><em>Money I can change you up<em>  
><em>You can have your own <em>  
><em>No longer be the passenger<em>  
><em>Swag low ill build you up<em>  
><em>Knees weak Ill stand you up<em>  
><em>Red lips red dress like 'em like a firetruck<em>

_Whatcha need you can have that _  
><em>My black card they don't decline that<em>  
><em>See potential in ya<em>  
><em>Let me mow that<em>  
><em>(Puck: I can transform ya I can transform ya)<em>

_[Puck feat. Santana]_  
><em>I can transform ya<em>  
><em>I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want<em>  
><em>I can I can get it for ya<em>  
><em>Get my baby girl she could know I did it for ya<em>  
><em>I can trans I can trans I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Shoes you got it got it<em>  
><em>Bags you got it got it<em>  
><em>Cars you got it got it<em>  
><em>M-M-Money you got it got it<em>  
><em>I can I can transform ya I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want I can I can get it for ya<em>

_[Santana]_  
><em>See me in the video<em>  
><em>You can have really though <em>  
><em>Iced out everything break it like a Eskimo<em>  
><em>Wanna fly we can go <em>  
><em>Anywhere you wanna go<em>  
><em>Jimmy Choos in Italy <em>  
><em>Louie V in Tokyo <em>  
><em>Something like Pinocchio <em>  
><em>If you ly down I'ma grow <em>  
><em>Wanna see me do it big<em>  
><em>I could show you how it go <em>  
><em>Take you from an amateur to being professional<em>  
><em>I can have you swag surfing<em>

_Whatcha need you can have that _  
><em>My black card they don't decline that<em>  
><em>See potential in ya<em>  
><em>Let me mow that<em>  
><em>(Puck: I can transform ya I can transform ya)<em>

_[Puck feat. Santana]_  
><em>I can transform ya<em>  
><em>I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want<em>  
><em>I can I can get it for ya<em>  
><em>Get my baby girl she could know I did it for ya<em>  
><em>I can trans I can trans I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Shoes you got it got it<em>  
><em>Bags you got it got it<em>  
><em>Cars you got it got it<em>  
><em>M-M-Money you got it got it<em>  
><em>I can transform ya I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want I can I can get it for ya<em>

_[Artie]_  
><em>Ok<em>  
><em>I can transform ya like a transformer<em>  
><em>I turn you from a human to a Carter<em>  
><em>Take you of the bench <em>  
><em>T-Turn you to a starter<em>  
><em>Then I take you home and put you on a charger<em>  
><em>T-Then my car transforms to a charter<em>  
><em>And we could fly to wherever you ever thought of <em>  
><em>I'll take you to where its warmer<em>  
><em>Then I gotta rip off your dress like a warm-up <em>  
><em>But I'm just getting warmed up <em>  
><em>So tell ya man he better get his voltron up<em>  
><em>I transform her to a Ducati <em>  
><em>Then I transform me to a Bugatti<em>  
><em>Cause her form puts me in a trance<em>  
><em>I transform smaller and she puts me in her pants<em>  
><em><strong>Puck<strong> on the beats _  
><em><strong>Chang<strong> move ya feet_  
><em>And <strong>Artie<strong> transform a good girl to a freak_

_[Puck feat. Santana]_  
><em>I can transform ya<em>  
><em>I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want<em>  
><em>I can I can get it for ya<em>  
><em>Get my baby girl she could know I did it for ya<em>  
><em>I can trans I can trans I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Shoes you got it got it<em>  
><em>Bags you got it got it<em>  
><em>Cars you got it got it<em>  
><em>M-M-Money you got it got it<em>  
><em>I can transform ya I can I can transform ya<em>  
><em>Anything you want I can I can get it for ya<em>

Everyone went wild as the finished and the band immediately went into their next song

_[Artie]  
>A tick tock don't stop (stop to the)<em>  
><em>A tick tock don't stop (stop to the)<em>  
><em>(oooh) a tick tock don't stop<em>  
><em>(oooh) a tick tock don't stop (I know you're not going to sing that song)<em>  
><em>(oooh) a tick tock don't stop<em>  
><em>(oooh) a tick tock don't stop (I know you're not going to sing that song)<em>

_[Puck]  
>Come inside, take off your coat, I'll make you feel at home.<em>  
><em>Now let's pour a glass of wine 'cause now we're all alone.<em>  
><em>I've been waiting all night so just let me hold you close to me,<em>  
><em>'Cause I've been dyin' for you girl to make love to me. (ooh)<em>

_[Santana]  
>Girl you make me feel real good. (ooh)<em>  
><em>We can do it 'til we both wake up. (both wake up)<em>  
><em>Girl, you know I'm hooked on you, (ooh)<em>  
><em>And this is what I'll do... (I know you're not gonna sing that song)<em>

_(ooh a tick tock don't stop) I wanna sex you up._  
><em>(ooh a tick tock don't stop) All night.<em>  
><em>(ooh a tick tock don't stop) You make me feel real good.<em>  
><em>(ooh a tick tock don't stop) I wanna rub you down.<em>  
><em>(ooh a tick tock don't stop) I wanna sex you up.<em>

_a tick tock don't stop_  
><em>a tick tock don't stop<em>  
><em>a tick tock don't stop<em>

_[Santana]  
>Let me take off all your clothes.<em>  
><em>Disconnect the phone so nobody knows.<em>  
><em>Let me light a candle,<em>  
><em>So that we can make it better.<em>  
><em>Makin' love until we drown.<em>

_(oooh) Girl, you know it feels real good._  
><em>(oooh) We can do it 'til we both wake up. (both wake up)<em>  
><em>(oooh) Girl you know I'm hooked on you.<em>  
><em>(oooh, I know you're not going to sing that song)<em>  
><em>And this is what I'll do.<em>

_I wanna sex you up_

Santana ended the song staring at Rachel with a smirk on her face before climbing down the steps of the stage. She cornered her girlfriend as she tried to get onstage. "Did you like it?" she asked, putting her hands on Rachel's waist. Rachel smiled.

"You were amazing." she whispered. Santana smiled softly, all inappropriate humor gone from the conversation as she leaned in and kissed the diva softly. "I love you." Rachel sighed against her lips.

"I love you too." Santana said.

"Santana, if you're done, we kinda need her to perform." Brittany said. Santana rolled her eyes playfully and gently played with the hat that Rachel was wearing to complete the outfit that Brittany had most likely picked out (there was not an animal print in sight.) Rachel grinned before walking onstage.

_[Brittany]_  
><em>Let's have some fun,<em>  
><em>This beat is sick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>

_[Tina]_  
><em>Let's have some fun,<em>  
><em>This beat is sick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>

_[Brittany]_  
><em>I wanna kiss you<em>  
><em>But if I do then I might miss you babe<em>  
><em>It's complicated and stupid<em>  
><em>Got my ass squeezed by sexy Cupid<em>  
><em>Guess he wants to play,<em>  
><em>Wants to play<em>  
><em>A love game<em>  
><em>A love game<em>

_[Rachel]_  
><em>Hold me and love me<em>  
><em>Just want to touch you for a minute<em>  
><em>Maybe three seconds is enough for my heart to quit it<em>  
><em>Let's have some fun,<em>  
><em>This beat is sick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>  
><em>Don't think too much just bust that kick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>

_[All]_  
><em>Let's play a love game,<em>  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_[Tina]_  
><em>I'm on a mission,<em>  
><em>And it involves some heavy touchin' yeah.<em>  
><em>You've indicated your interest,<em>  
><em>I'm educated in sex, yes.<em>  
><em>And now I want it bad,<em>  
><em>Want it bad.<em>  
><em>A love game,<em>  
><em>A love game.<em>

_[Rachel]_  
><em>Hold me and love me<em>  
><em>Just want to touch you for a minute<em>  
><em>Maybe three seconds is enough for my heart to quit it<em>  
><em>Let's have some fun,<em>  
><em>This beat is sick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>  
><em>Don't think too much just bust that kick<em>  
><em>I wanna take a ride on your disco stick<em>

_[All]_  
><em>Let's play a love game,<em>  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_Let's play a love game,_  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_[Rachel]_  
><em>I can see you staring there from across the block with a smile on your mouth and your hand on your huh<em>

_[Tina]_  
><em>The story of us it always starts the same with a boy and a girl and a huh and a game!<em>

_[Brittany]_  
><em>And a game<em>  
><em>And a game<em>  
><em>And a game<em>  
><em>A love game!<em>

_[All]_  
><em>Let's play a love game,<em>  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_Let's play a love game, _  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_Let's play a love game,_  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

_Let's play a love game,_  
><em>Play a love game<em>  
><em>Do you want love or you want fame?<em>  
><em>Are you in the game?<em>  
><em>Dans le love game?<em>

Everyone clapped as they went into their next song, immediately knowing who picked it out.

_[Brittany (talking)]_  
><em>I know I may be young, but I've got feelings too. <em>  
><em>And I need to do what I feel like doing. <em>  
><em>So let me go and just listen. <em>

_[Brittany]_  
><em>All you people look at me like I'm a little girl. <em>  
><em>Well did you ever think it be okay for me to step into this world. <em>  
><em>Always saying little girl don't step into the club. <em>  
><em>Well I'm just tryin' to find out why cause dancing's what I love. <em>

_[Tina feat. Brittany]_  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOOOA) (Do you like it) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (OOOHHHH) (This feels good) <em>

_[Rachel]_  
><em>I know I may come off quiet, I may come off shy. <em>  
><em>But I feel like talking, feel like dancing when I see this guy. <em>  
><em>What's practical is logical. What the hell, who cares? <em>  
><em>All I know is I'm so happy when you're dancing there. <em>

_[All]_  
><em>I'm a slave for you. I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. <em>  
><em>I'm a slave for you. I won't deny it; I'm not trying to hide it. <em>

_[Brittany feat. Rachel]_  
><em>Baby, don't you wanna, dance upon me, <em>  
><em>(I just wanna dance next to you) <em>  
><em>To another time and place. <em>  
><em>Baby, don't you wanna, dance upon me, <em>  
><em>(Are you ready) <em>  
><em>Leaving behind my name, my age. <em>  
><em>(Lets go) <em>

_(Like that) _  
><em>(You like it) <em>  
><em>(Now watch me) <em>

_[Tina feat. Brittany]_  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (OOOHHHH) <em>  
><em>(Panting) <em>

_[Rachel feat. Brittany]_  
><em>I really wanna dance, tonight with you. <em>  
><em>(I just can't help myself) <em>  
><em>I really wanna do what you want me to. <em>  
><em>(I just feel I let myself go) <em>

_I really wanna dance, tonight with you. _  
><em>(Wanna see you move) <em>  
><em>I really wanna do what you want me to. <em>  
><em>(Uh Uh Uh) <em>

_[Brittany feat. Rachel]_  
><em>Baby, don't you wanna, dance upon me, <em>  
><em>(I just wanna dance next to you) <em>  
><em>To another time and place. <em>  
><em>Baby, don't you wanna, dance upon me, <em>  
><em>(Are you ready) <em>  
><em>Leaving behind my name, my age. <em>

_[All]_  
><em>I'm a slave for you. (Take that) I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. <em>  
><em>I'm a slave (It just feels right) for you. (It just feels good) <em>  
><em>I won't deny it; I'm not trying to hide it. (Baby) <em>

_[Tina feat. Brittany]_  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (OOOHHHH) <em>  
><em>(Panting) <em>

_Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOA) _  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (WHOOOOOA) <em>  
><em>Get it get it, get it get it (OOOHHHH) <em>  
><em>(Panting) <em>

_[All]_  
><em>I'm a slave for you. (Here we go now) <em>  
><em>I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. <em>  
><em>I'm a slave for you. (Here we go) I won't deny it, (Yeah) <em>  
><em>I'm not trying to hide it. <em>

_(Like that)_

Santana was waiting for Rachel when she sat in her lap. "You've been a lot calmer these past few days." Rachel commented as she rested her head on Santana's shoulder. Santana smiled and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist.

"Rehearsing all these songs has kept my mind off of Jew Fro. But now that I'm done... he's not getting away with what he did. Me not continuously chasing after him has probably given him a false sense of security." Santana said. Rachel nodded and snuggled even closer to the Latina. Santana smiled again as she rested her head on top Rachel's wishing the hat was gone so that she'd be even closer to the girl. "You know I'm doing this cause I love you, right?" Santana whispered. She felt Rachel nod.

"Yea... that's why_ I _love _you_. You make me feel protected and safe." Rachel said.

"You're always safe with me and I'll always protect you." Santana promised. _Watch out, Jew Fro. You don't spy on and stalk Santana Lopez's girl - thus, spying on and stalking Santana Lopez - and get away with it._ she thought.


	15. Chapter 15

After about a week of searching, Santana _finally_ located her target. She snuck up behind him so he wouldn't run away again. "Hey Jacob." she said, her voice driping with false sweetness. He turned around and saw the Latina. Santana smirked as his face immediately flashed with fear.

"Sa- Santana..." he said. She smiled.

"Hi."

"What are you... its been a week..."

"Did you _really _think I was going to let you get away with it? No I was just busy working on stuff for Glee... but I didn't forget about you, don't worry." she said. Jacob nodded.

"How's Rachel?" Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Bad idea." Santana said, grabbing his hair. Coach Sylvester walked by.

"Love the idea, Lopez. Not on campus." she said. Santana sighed and nodded.

"Yes, Coach." she said, releasing him. She turned to Jacob. "This ain't over, Jew Fro. I _will_ get you back for this." she hissed, walking to the choir room. Rachel looked up and smiled. When she saw the diva, Santana relaxed.

"What's up?" Rachel asked.

"Sue wouldn't let me kill Jew Fro on campus." Santana said. Rachel giggled.

"Kinda what I said, right?" Santana rolled her eyes and looked around.

"Finn and Quinn are back already?" she whispered. Rachel nodded.

"I prepared another song for Finn. Just go with it." Rachel said, standing up when Mr. Schue walked in. "Mr. Schuester, as you know during our assignment with country songs, I dedicated _Turn on Your Radio_ to Finn, but he wasn't here. If its okay with you, I'd like to sing another song for Finn." she said. Mr. Schue nodded and Rachel went to the front of the room. "Hit it."

_State the obvious, I didn't get my perfect fantasy_  
><em>I realize you love yourself more than you could ever love me<em>  
><em>So go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy<em>  
><em>That's fine I'll tell mine that you're gay!<em>  
><em>By the way...<em>

_I hate that stupid old pickup truck_  
><em>You never let me drive<em>  
><em>You're a redneck heartbreak<em>  
><em>Who's really bad at lying<em>  
><em>So watch me strike a match<em>  
><em>On all my wasted time<em>  
><em>As far as I'm concerned you're<em>  
><em>Just another picture to burn<em>

_There's no time for tears,_  
><em>I'm just sitting here planning my revenge<em>

Rachel pointed at Santana when she sang the next part.

_**She's all that's** stopping me_  
><em>From going out with all of your best friends<em>

Rachel went behind Santana and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

_And if you come around saying sorry to me_  
><em><strong>My baby's<strong> gonna show you how sorry you'll be_

_I hate that stupid old pickup truck_  
><em>You never let me drive<em>  
><em>You're a redneck heartbreak<em>  
><em>Who's really bad at lying<em>  
><em>So watch me strike a match<em>  
><em>On all my wasted time<em>  
><em>As far as I'm concerned you're<em>  
><em>Just another picture to burn<em>

_And if you're missing me,_  
><em>You'd better keep it to yourself<em>  
><em>'cause coming back around here<em>  
><em>Would be bad for your health...<em>

_'cause I hate that stupid old pickup truck_  
><em>You never let me drive<em>  
><em>You're a redneck heartbreak<em>  
><em>Who's really bad at lying<em>  
><em>So watch me strike a match<em>  
><em>On all my wasted time<em>  
><em>In case you haven't heard,<em>  
><em>I really really hate that...<em>

_Stupid old pickup truck_  
><em>You never let me drive<em>  
><em>You're a redneck heartbreak<em>  
><em>Who's really bad at lying<em>  
><em>So watch me strike a match<em>  
><em>On all my wasted time<em>  
><em>As far as I'm concerned you're<em>  
><em>Just another picture to burn<em>

_Burn, burn, burn, baby, burn_  
><em>You're just another picture to burn<em>  
><em>Baby, burn...<em>

Santana laughed at Finn's face when everyone clapped and Rachel sat down. "Mr. Schue, that was so out of line!" Finn yelled. Rachel looked at Santana.

"You did good, Ray. Finn, _you're _out of line." Santana said. Finn rolled his eyes.

"For the last time, Santana stay out of this. How many times do I have to say this? If _you_ hadn't opened your big mouth before Sectionals, Rachel and I'd still be together." Rachel opened her mouth, but Santana beat her to it.

"Listen up, Finnoncence. Yea, I shouldn't have blurted out that you and I hooked up. And in all honesty, I shouldn't have slept with you in the first place, and not just because you _sucked_. But you could have said no, too. Don't go blaming it all on me, because I distinctly remember you saying no first because you liked Rachel, but then the next day you came up to me and distinctly said that you were in. You showed up at that motel. You could have stopped at any moment. I asked you at least twice if you were sure, and both times you said yes." Santana said. Finn rolled his eyes. "You know, I don't think this is about the fact that Rachel and I are together. I think its because your ex chose the girl that you lost your virginity to. Or maybe its because she just didn't choose you at all." Santana continued. Finn lunged at her. Santana quickly pushed Rachel out of the way, not really caring where she landed at the moment. There'd be time to check on her later. Before Finn could reach her, Santana herself was pushed out of the way by Puck.

"Finn, you need to back off. Even if you had a good reason, you don't hit girls. Just be happy for them! Santana makes Rachel happier than she ever was with you!" Puck yelled. Finn took a swing at Puck, but was restrained by Mr. Schue.

"Everybody, calm down. Santana, don't antagonize Finn." he said. Santana looked up in disbelief.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Just because he's your golden boy doesn't mean he's perfect!" Santana yelled. She tried to stand up, but Rachel's arms were wrapped around her to keep her on the ground.

"Sshh. Its okay, Sanny Bear." Rachel said, stroking her hair. "Its okay." Santana shook her head.

"Rachel, you're dating a slut!" Finn yelled. The entire room went silent and Rachel's movements paused.

"This again, Finn?" Rachel asked. Finn nodded. "At least Santana didn't cheat on me."

"We weren't official!"

"You certainly acted like it!" Rachel yelled back. Finn rolled his eyes and Rachel stood up and slapped him.

"You are never to say anything bad about my girlfriend again." she hissed. Santana watched in amazement from the floor as Rachel calmly turned around and sat back with Santana. ", I think it'd be a good idea if Finn was dismissed from rehearsal today." Racel said. Mr. Schue looked between the two and nodded.

"Come back when you can have respect for your teammates Finn." he said. Finn gasped and left. Rachel smiled at Santana.

"I love you Ray Bear." Santana whispered.

"And I love you Sanny Bear." Rachel whispered.


	16. Chapter 16

Santana and Puck pulled up in front of Jacob's house. "You ready?" she asked. He nodded and they got out of the car. Walking up to the front door, Santana took a deep breath. She knew Rachel would be pissed when she found out what Santana was doing, but the Latina didn't care. She needed to get her point across to Jacob. Ringing the doorbell, she expected one of Jacob's nerdy parents to answer. Needless to say, she and PUck were caught off guard when a highly attractive woman answered.

"Can I help you?" she asked with a smile.

"Uh... we're looking for Jacob Ben-Israel... Is he here?" Santana asked as Puck drooled. She nodded.

"Yes. I'm his mother."

"You're his mom?" Santana blurted out. She nodded. "Anyway... can we see him?"

"Come on in. He's in his room." Santana nodded and dragged Puck in the direction she pointed.

"How the hell did _she_ give birth to _that_?" Puck hissed. Santana shrugged and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Santana and Puck entered. "Santana... Puck..."

"Yea. You can't escape us now." Santana said with a fake smile as Puck closed the door.

"My mother will hear if you kill me." Jacob said.

"Relax. We're not gonna kill you... yet." Puck said. Santana nodded.

"But now that I'm back on the Cheerios, I can do so much damage to your miniscule reputation that you really don't want to mess with me. I just want to know what exactly prompted you to stalk my girlfriend."

"I want her." Jacob said. Santana rolled her eyes.

"That's like the worst secret in the world. Everyone knows that." she said.

"And Rachel wants me too." he said.

"Okay, no one in their right mind would ever want you. You're a creep. Oh and this just in, Rachel's in love with me. She doesn't want you, nor will she ever want you. I don't plan on letting her go." Santana said. Jacob stood up in Santana's face. The Latina instantly pushed him back onto his bed.

"Rachel is mine."

"Rachel hates you." Puck said.

"Rachel loves me!" Jacob yelled. The door flew open.

"What is going on in here?" Mrs. Ben-Israel asked. Santana glared at the boy. "Get out of my house." she demanded.

"Yes ma'am." Santana said, walking out.

* * *

><p>Rachel ran down the stairs when she heard the doorbell ring. Flinging the door open, she threw herself into her girlfriend's arms. "Sanny Bear!" Santana laughed as she hugged her girlfriend.<p>

"_Hola_, _mi amor_." she said. Rachel smiled. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Perfect. I love you." Rachel rambled. Santana chuckled.

"How's your test load this week?"

"I've got at least one test and one quiz every day. Why?" Rachel asked, jumping up and down. Santana bit back laughter.

"Going on another coffee run until the week's over?" Rachel nodded. "Well that explains why your dads aren't home. Let's go inside before someone thinks I've drugged you." she said. Rachel jumped on her back the moment Santana passed her. "Oof... God Ray."

"You think I'm fat don't you?" Rachel accused. Santana laughed.

"Absolutely not babe. You're freaking tiny. You just surprised me, that's all." she said as she walked to the couch. "Ray, you gotta let go."

"No!" Santana held back a sigh.

"Ray Bear, please?" she asked, looking up. Rachel smiled and allowed the Latina to set her down on the couch. "Thank you. Now, do you need any help studying?"

* * *

><p>"Thank you for helping me study, Sanny Bear." Rachel said as she highlighted some notes. Santana smiled up from the flashcards she was making for Rachel from the diva's notes.<p>

"No problem, baby. Its what I'm here for." she said. Rachel kissed her softly. "What time are your dads coming home?"

"They're out of town for a conference."

"So... you're home alone? Why didn't you tell me? I know you hate being home alone at night." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"Will you spend the night?" she asked. Santana nodded and grabbed her phone.

**Calling**

**Mom**

_"Hello?"_

"Mom? Hey, can I spend the night at Rachel's house?" Santana asked.

_"Its a school night, Santana."_

"Yea, I know, but her dads are out of town and she hates being alone at night." Santana said.

_"San..."_

"She needs my help studying. She's got a full load this week. Please Mommy?" Santana asked. Her mother sighed.

_"I guess."_

"Thank you! I love you! Bye." Santana said, hanging up. Rachel looked up.

"I'm guessing that was a yes?" Santana nodded and smiled. "We _will _be studying, Santana." Rachel said.

"I know, love. I know." Santana said. Rachel smiled. "I love you, Rachel."

"I love you too." she said, looking back down at her book. Santana smiled softly and remembered their first date at the county fair as she watched her girlfriend study.

_FLASHBACK_

_Santana nervously pulled into Rachel's driveway. She'd never been this nervous before a date before. Then again, she'd never felt this way about anyone before. She checked her outfit and hair one last time before grabbing the tulips she'd bought for Rachel and getting out of the car. Holding her breath, she rang the doorbell. Suddenly, Rachel Berry was in front of her. "Hey Rachel." Santana managed to say. Rachel smiled._

_"Hey San!"_

_"You look beautiful." Santana blurted out. Rachel looked down at her jeans and form-fitting Journey tshirt._

_"Thanks. So do you." she said, taking in Santana's jeans and form-fittng graphic tee from Aeropostale that was under her leather jacket. Santana smiled and then remembered the flowers._

_"I got you these. I hope you like them." she said nervously, holding out the flower. Rachel blushed and took the flower._

_"Thank you so much, Santana. They're beautiful. Let me go put them in a vase." she said, running into the kitchen. She quickly returned and grabbed her jacket. "Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?" she asked as they made their way to Santana's car. The Cheerio grinned and shook her head._

_"Its a surprise, Rachel." she said as they pulled out of the driveway. During the drive to their first destination, Rachel and Santana talked about random stuff, laughing the entire time. Rachel was shocked to find that it was very easy to talk to the Latina. She gasped when Santana pulled into the parking lot of the new (and only) vegan restaraunt in town. "Have you been here before?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head._

_"I've been trying to find time to go, but I've been so busy." she said. Santana smiled._

_"I hope you like it. The reviews said it was really good and I know you're vegan, so..."_

_"Thank you, Santana." The two walked into the restaraunt and talked throughout the entire meal. "That was a wonderful meal, Santana. I loved it." Rachel said as they walked back to Santana's car._

_"Maybe we can go again sometime." Santana said as casually as she could. Rachel smiled up at her._

_"I'd love it. So... do you want to come back to my house and hang out?" Rachel offered. Santana shook her head._

_"We're not done yet. I'm taking you to the county fair. Is that okay?" Santana asked, suddenly nervous again. Rachel grinned and nodded. "What do you want to do first?" Santana asked after they had their tickets._

_"Can we ride the Ferris Wheel?" Rachel asked. Santana bit her lip, but nodded._

_"Yea sure." she managed to say. She held her breath as they got in their car and the ride started. Rachel couldn't help but notice that Santana looked incredibly pale._

_"Santana, are you okay?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded, but squeezed her eyes shut. "San?"_

_"I'm terrified of heights." Santana said softly. Rachel's face instantly clouded with guilt._

_"Oh no. I'm so sorry. Why didn't you say something?" Rachel asked._

_"Because you wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel and I want you to have a good time." Santana answered. Rachel moved closer to the girl._

_"Hey... just concentrate on me. You're okay." she whispered. Santana slowly opened her eyes. "Here. Let's distract ourselves." Rachel said, pulling out her phone and turning on the camera. Slowly, Santana began to calm down, though she didn't hesitate to get off the moment they were stopped. Rachel couldn't help but laugh as Santana immediately went to sit on a bench._

_"I'm glad you think this is funny." Santana teased. Rachel stopped laughing._

_"Santana, I'm so sorry. I wish you had said something. I feel terrible." she said, standing next to the Cheerio. Santana smiled and pulled the diva into her lap._

_"Its okay, Rach. I'm not mad." she said. Rachel smiled softly and the two went to go play games. Santana bit back a laugh as Rachel continuously failed at the ring toss game, though couldn't help but notice as her gaze continued to flicker to a certain prize. "You'll get it, Rach." she encouraged. Rachel sighed._

_"I give up. I'm going to the restroom." she said, walking away. Santana frowned and turned to the person working the booth._

_"Can I get a round of rings, please?" she asked. Once she had the rings, she easily tossed the necessary amount of rings and picked the gold bear that Rachel had been eyeing. Once she had the bear, she ventured over to the restrooms to wait for Rachel._

_"San." Santana turned around and saw Rachel walking toward her. Holding out the bear, she smiled. "What's this?"_

_"That's the one you wanted right?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded and took the bear. "I won it for you." Santana said, smiling shyly as she looked down. Rachel smiled and used her finger to lift the Latina's chin up. Santana grabbed the smaller girl's hand and Rachel started to lean in, but Santana turned away shyly. "What do you want to do now?" Santana asked, smiling down at Rachel and never letting go of her hand._

_"I want to win you something." Rachel said. Santana smiled softly._

_"You don't have to do that, Rachel."_

_"I want to!" the diva insisted. Santana grinned._

_"Okay, let's find you a game." she said. It took Rachel five tries, but she finally won Santana a prize at the dart game. "Which one do you want?" Rachel asked proudly. Santana smiled and picked out a red stuffed bear that matched Rachel's gold one. As they walked away, Rachel squeezed her hand. "We should name them." she said excitedly. Santana laughed._

_"That's totally lame, Rach." she said, giggling. Rachel glared and tickled the girl. "Okay! Okay! We can name them!" Santana said, trying to get away._

_"Okay, how about we keep them a secret and then tell each other if we ever become official." Rachel suggested. Santana stopped._

_"You think there's chance we could become official?" she asked. Rachel shrugged._

_"Maybe... I don't know. I haven't even had a date with Quinn yet. But I'm having an amazing time, San." Santana nodded._

_"So am I. Okay. Its a deal." she said, smiling at Rachel. Once they were out of tickets, they went back to Santana's car and the Latina drove her date home._

_"I had a wonderful time tonight, Santana." Rachel said as she leaned against one of the posts on her front porch. Santana stood on the second step and faced Rachel._

_"So did I, Rachel." she said softly, stepping up to the top step. Rachel tried to lean in again, but Santana smiled shyly and kissed her cheek. "I'll text you later?"_

_"I'd love that. Good night, San."_

_"Night, Rach."_

_END FLASHBACK_

"What are you thinking about, baby?" Rachel asked. Santana smiled.

"Our first date at the fair." Rachel grinned.

"Have I told you how much I love you lately?" Santana shook her head. "I love you more than anything in the world." Rachel whispered.

"I love you more than Breadstix, Cheerios, and Glee Club mixed together." Santana said.

"Oh baby, how you talk." Rachel teased, scooting closer to her girlfriend.

"Is it turning you on?" Santana breathed. Rachel nodded.

"Immensely." she whispered, kissing the Latina and pushing her down. "Let's take a break from studying." Rachel suggested, pulling her Cheerio girlfriend upstairs.


	17. Chapter 17

"Fabray, we're about to have a smack down." Santana said, storming into the choir room. Rachel looked up from her Glee binder curiously.

"Sanny? What's wrong?" she asked. Santana glared at the blonde while she spoke to her girlfriend.

"This little bitch still wants you." she said. Rachel looked at her girlfriend.

"What the hell are you talking about, Lopez?" Quinn snapped. Every one stared on curiously. "I told you I'd back off." Santana rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. Don't act all perfect. You're trying to steal my girl!" Rachel stood up and walked over to Santana.

"Baby, look at me." she said softly. Santana shook her head. "Santana, please." Santana reluctantly turned her head. "Remember last night?"

_FLASHBACK_

_Rachel pulled her girlfriend upstairs and into her room. "I love you." she breathed as Santana kissed her._

_"I love you too." Santana replied, pushing her toward the bed._

_"San... I'm ready." Santana looked up quickly and Rachel nodded._

_END FLASHBACK_

"Yea, I remember." Santana said. Rachel smiled.

"I'm all yours. You have nothing to worry about." she said. Santana glared at Quinn.

"I don't trust her. She's already hurt you once. I refuse to let her do it again." she said. Rachel cupped her cheek.

"Baby. I'm with you. She's not going to get the opportunity." she whispered. Santana smiled and kissed Rachel. "I love _you_. Just remember that." Rachel said. Santana nodded. "Are you okay now?" she asked.

"Yea, I guess... but I'm watching you, Fabray. She's mine, damn it. I'm not letting you take her from me." Santana said. Quinn glared at the Latina.

"I may still want her-"

"Told you!" Santana yelled. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Let me finish, damn it! I may still want her, but I told you I'd back off." Quinn said.

"But it wouldn't be the first time you tried to fuck up a relationship. Leave mine alone!" Santana hissed. Rachel pulled her girlfriend back.

"Okay, you need to calm down." she said. Santana shook furiously.

"Leave her alone."

"Your unnecessary jealousy is starting to get irritating, Santana. I need you to stop!" Rachel yelled. Santana looked at her girlfriend. "Now, can you please leave Quinn and I alone to talk?" Santana raised an eyebrow. "You trust me, right?" She nodded. "Then let me talk to her." Santana nodded and left the room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry its so short. I wanted to udate this, but I'm having trouble with some of my stories right now. I haven't given up on this though! :)**


	18. Chapter 18

After Rachel left the choir room with Quinn, Santana immediately went to the art room. Not that many people knew that the Latina was an artist, but she was. She had been drawing and painting almost as long as she'd been singing and cheering. In a way, art was theraputic to her. Sighing, she pulled out her latest project and waited for Rachel to find her.

Rachel was filled with anger as she left her conversation with Quinn and immediately sought out her girlfriend. Knowing she hadn't stayed in the choir room, she went straight to the art room and found Santana hunched over a near finished painting. Smiling, she took a moment to simply stare at her girlfriend, wondering how she got so damn lucky. She had a beautiful girl who was athletic, musically talented, intelligent, and artistic. Santana was just a well-rounded person and Rachel found herself fortunate that the Latina had chosen her of all people to be in love with. Blushing, she shyly entered the room. "Hi." she whispered, not wanting to scare the cheerleader and cause her to mess up. Santana looked up and relief flooded her face.

"Hey." she said, setting down her brush. Rachel took that opportunity to hug the Latina. "How'd it go?"

"It was awful." Rachel said, earning a growl from Santana.

_FLASHBACK_

_"What'd you want to talk about Rach?" Quinn asked. Rachel glared at her._

_"Stop antagonizing Santana." Quinn laughed._

_"Its not my fault she's so insecure about your relationship." she said. Rachel rolled her eyes. "If you'd picked me, I'd never question your love. I'd always know that it was in me." Rachel gasped. "We can still have that, Rachel. Never mind that you picked Santana first, we can still be together." Quinn whispered._

_"Quinn-" she was cut off by Quinn's lips on her own. Gasping, she pulled away quickly. "Don't ever do that again. I do not love you Quinn. I love Santana and I will always love her." Rachel said, running out of the auditorium._

_END FLASHBACK_

Santana tensed and sat down. "I'll kill her." she said. Rachel shook her head. "She kissed you!"

"Are you mad at me?" Rachel whispered. Santana's head shot up.

"Why would I be mad at you? You didn't do anything wrong." she said. Rachel shrugged and Santana pulled out a chair, motioning for her to sit down. When she did, Santana wrapped an arm around the diva's shoulders and kissed her cheek. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at that Barbie doll who thinks she can kiss my Ray Bear." Santana whispered. Rachel smiled softly and hugged Santana. "I mean, if I lose you, I won't really have any inspiration for my art. You're kind of necessary for me to keep around." she teased. Rachel rolled her eyes and kissed her girlfriend before looking down at the painting.

"What are you painting?" she asked. Santana blushed and looked down at the canvas.

"Its well... The assignment was to paint something that represented the most important person in your life. I... well, I remembered you like gold stars, so I sketched a star in the middle of the canvas and then I put other things in the background." she said softly. Rachel bit her lip and smiled shyly. "There's a microphone, and a bunch of music symbols... The Ferris Wheel was the hardest part. I also put block letters for somethings. Like, I wrote out 'Glee' and 'New York' and 'Broadway' and I put an 'R' in the middle of the star."

"I love it. What type of paint are you using?" Rachel asked.

"Its uh... I decided to use water colors. I'd let you try it out on scratch paper, but this stuff is expensive and Mr. Freedmont had to order it special for me because I hate the ones that the school buys. He's been teaching me art since I started taking classes down at the community center, so he's pretty cool about getting the materials I want." Santana explained. Rachel smiled.

"Its okay. I understand."

"I have some stuff at home if you want to try sometime." Santana offered.

"That sounds wonderful Santana. I'd love to try sometime." Rachel said. Santana grinned. She loved that Rachel wanted to try something she was interested in. Rachel turned back to the painting. "You're really talented, Santana. This is amazing."

"Its not finished. I have to go in and fill in the letters." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"But still... How long have you been working on this?" she asked. Santana looked down.

"I started it the day after we broke up." she admitted. Rachel looked over.

"Really?" she whispered. Santana nodded.

"Is... Is that creepy?" she asked. Rachel giggled.

"No... its actually really sweet." she said. Santana smiled and leaned in. Rachel met her halfway, deepening the kiss almost instantly before the sound of a throat clearing interrupted them.

"Santana, I know I told you that you could come in here whenever you wanted to work, but that doesn't mean you can make out in here." Mr. Freedmont said. Rachel blushed.

"Sorry sir. I was just showing Rachel my painting." Santana said. The teacher nodded and sat down at his desk. "We actually have to get going though. Let me just clean up, Ray." she said, cleaning her brushes and putting her materials away.

"That looks amazing Santana. You should be done by the end of the week." the man said. Santana smiled. "Have you ever thought of going to art school after high school?"

"You mean like for college?" she asked. He nodded. "Not really. I mean I'd love to study it, but I've never really thought about it before." she said. Rachel looked on curiously. "I'll look into it though."

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" Rachel asked as Santana looked intently at her computer. Rachel was spending the week at Santana's house until her dads returned from their trip.<p>

"You want to go to Julliard right?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"Ms. Pillsbury informed me that they don't have a musical theater program, so I'm turning my attention towards NYADA." she explained. Santana nodded. "Why?"

"There's this really good art school in New York." Rachel's head snapped up. "I... I didn't mean to presume... I just... I don't really like the thought of us not being together after high school." Santana said softly. Rachel smiled.

"You're really talented, Santana. You should study art, especially if its what makes you happy." she said. Santana shrugged.

"We have over a year to decide. I was just looking at it." she said, closing her laptop. Rachel climbed into her lap. "Wherever I go, I want to be with you." Santana said softly. Rachel grinned and kissed her. "I love you."

"I love you too."


	19. Chapter 19

"Okay Rachel. What do you know about art and painting?" Santana asked as they finished setting up Santana's water color paints.

"Uh..." Rachel said, smiling shyly. Santana chuckled and kissed her girlfriend's cheek. "I'm sorry." she said quietly.

"Its all good, baby. That actually makes this a lot easier. It means that I can just start at the beginning." Santana said. Rachel smiled rested her head on Santana's shoulder. "Okay, so you know that you need two cups of water, one for clean water and one for your dirty water, right?" Rachel nodded. "Okay so with your clean water, you can like add water to your same color if you want it lighter. With your dirty water, that's where you clean off your brush when you want to change colors. You always have to have paper towels with you in case you make a mistake that you need to clean up really quickly."

"Paper towels, got it." Rachel said, a concentrated look on her face. Santana couldnt help but smile as she leaned over to kiss Rachel.

"Stop stressin' Ray. You're gonna be great at this, I can feel it." she said. Rachel giggled nervously.

"I just don't want to mess up and disappoint you."

"Baby, the fact that you're trying this at all is enough to make me happy with whatever you paint." Santana said, smiling. Rachel blushed.

"I love you. I want to be able to share this with you. I'll never be as talented as you are, but I still want to try it." she said. Santana kissed her softly.

"I love you too." she said, pulling away. "Let's get to painting."

* * *

><p>"Ray are you sure you've never painted before?" Santana asked as she stared at Rachel's finished painting. The diva nodded. "Baby, that's pretty good." Rachel blushed and looked over the tropical setting she'd painted.<p>

"Really?"

"Hell yea! Can I take it and show it to Mr. Freedmont?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"No... Its not good. I don't want him to see that." she said.

"Baby, its amazing, especially for a first-timer. Let me show it to him." Santana insisted. Rachel sighed.

"Okay... But you so owe me." she said. Santana smirked and pushed her onto her bed.

"I'll repay you right now." she whispered, kissing her girlfriend passionately.

* * *

><p>"You said Rachel Berry painted that?" Mr. Freedmont asked. Santana nodded.<p>

"I was teaching her how to use water colors and she decided she wanted to paint this." she explained.

"That's pretty good." he said, clearly impressed. Rachel had been in his class all of one day her freshman year before dropping the class. "If I'd known she'd have so much natural talent I wouldn't have let her drop the class back when she was a freshman."

"I forgot about that." Santana said, smirking. Rachel stood in the doorway.

"San? Are you ready to go to lunch?" she asked, smiling at the Latina. Santana nodded.

"Yea, definitely." she said.

"Rachel, your painting is amazing." the teacher said. Rachel blushed.

"Thank you. Santana taught me a lot. She's an amazing teacher." the diva said, smiling shyly at the Latina that was now standing next to her.

"Ray, that's all natural talent." the cheerleader said as they walked out of the room.

* * *

><p>"Hey Ray, I have a present for you." Santana said. Rachel's dads had returned from their trip, so Santana had to go all the way to Rachel's house to see her now.<p>

"What's that?" Rachel asked, smiling softly. Santana presented her with two frames. One held Rachel's painting and the other held Santana's. "You had those framed for me?"

"Yep. One's by you and one's inspired by you. They should be hanging up in your room. But I definitely took it to a place where they're somehow able to make exact replicas of pieces and those are going in my room." Santana explained. Rachel giggled.

"I love it. Thank you." she said, accepting Santana's kiss. The Latina smiled.

"I love you."

"I love you too."


	20. Chapter 20

"Rachel, you really don't have to go to the art show. It's just a showing of all the artwork that's been done over the year." Santana said. Rachel glared.

"Shut up. I'm going. I'm trying to support you and you're just going to have to deal with it." she said. Santana frowned. "And I can tell you're totally loving this whole having someone outside of your family and Brittany care about you and your interests." Rachel stared at Santana until the cheerleader until she smiled. "Oh! There it is, the Ice Queen smiled!" Rachel teased.

"You're right. I am loving this. I love _you_. But it... I don't want you to be bored all night." Santana said. Rachel smiled softly.

"I'll be with you. There's no way that I can be bored." she promised, grabbing Santana's hands and squeezing them.

"Only if you're sure." Santana said. Rachel nodded.

"I'm positive."

* * *

><p>"Santana, you're an amazing artist." Rachel whispered as they walked around looking at all of the artwork.<p>

"Thanks." Santana said, blushing. Rachel looked over and grinned.

"I am so incredibly proud of you." she said, hugging her girlfriend.

"Hey, I'm proud of you too. You got that lead in that play you auditioned for and I'm gonna be front row on opening night." Santana promised. Rachel smiled.

"I love you so much." she whispered.

"I love you too." Santana said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry its short, just trying to get back into this story!**


	21. Chapter 21

"I still can't believe you con... Santana what happened?" Rachel exclaimed as she walked out of the bathroom in their hotel room for Nationals to find her girlfriend of six months examining a huge bruise on her stomach.

"It's nothing, Rachel." Rachel scoffed.

"You have a bruise covering your entire stomach. It's definitely something." she said. Santana pulled her shirt back down. "San, please tell me what happened."

"It's not as bad as it seems." Rachel walked forward and lifted Santana's shirt.

"Baby, this needs to get looked at." she whispered.

"You're looking at it."

"That's not what I mean and you know it." Rachel snapped. Santana bit her lip.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, trying to stop her tears from falling.

"It's okay, I just need to know what happened so I can help you." Rachel said, cupping Santana's face.

"I... had an altercation with some members of Aural Intensity." Santana whispered. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Define altercation."

"Do you really need me to?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"Who did that?" she growled. Santana shook her head.

"No way. I'm not telling you that. If I do, you're either going to go down there yourself or you're going to get the guys." she said.

"I'm not going to sit back after this!" Rachel yelled.

"Well I'm not telling you!" Santana said. Rachel slapped her girlfriend and immediately gasped.

"Santana, I am so sorry. I don't know-" Santana backed away from the diva.

"Get out." Rachel took a step forward. "Stay away from me!" Santana said, crying. Rachel stared helplessly at the Latina. "Just leave! Get your stuff and go!"

"I'm sorry." Rachel whispered as she left the room. Suddenly remembering that she had a schedule in her bag, she pulled it out and saw that Aural Intensity was rehearsing right now. Determined, she marched to the elevator, bumping into Puck and Finn on the way.

"Where are you going in flip-flops, pajama pants, and a T-shirt?" Puck asked.

"I need to speak to Aural Intensity. One of them decided to hit my girlfriend." Rachel hissed. Finn raised an eyebrow as they followed her onto the elevator.

"I saw Santana talking to some dude from Aural Intensity at breakfast. It didn't look like anything bad... Rachel, this is all my fault." Rachel turned to him and shook her head.

"It's not your fault, Finn. He probably waited until everyone was gone to do anything to her. You didn't know he was going to do anything bad to Santana." she said, adjusting the sleeves on her zip up Cheerios hoodie she'd borrowed from Santana. Finn didn't look convinced.

"I would have stepped in if I had known." Rachel smiled slightly.

"I know, Finn." she said as they reached the lobby.

"What room are they in?" Puck asked. Rachel checked the schedule.

"Conference room two." she said, leading the way. "Finn, I'll need you to tell me which guy you saw her talking to."

"Wait, Rach, he's obviously not above hitting girls." Finn protested.

"I can always leave you guys and figure it out myself." she said, tightening her ponytail. Finn sighed. "Finn, she's my girlfriend. I'm the one who needs to do this."

"He swings at you once and I'm stepping in." Puck warned. Rachel shrugged as the entered the Aural Intensity rehearsal room.

"This is a closed rehearsal." one of the members said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Do I really look like I care?" she asked, looking up at Finn. "Which one?" she asked. Finn pointed at a muscular boy. "Perfect."

"What's going on?" the boy asked. Rachel walked over to him. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Mitchell..." She gave him a fake smile.

"Well, Mitchell, we were just wondering why you were our teammate hitting earlier." He raised am eyebrow.

"You guys are from New Directions, aren't you?" They nodded. "Look, your girl was talking trash. She needed to be put in her place."

"First of all, _'our girl'_ is actually _my _girl and second of all, nothing she could have said should have warranted hitting her!" Rachel said.

"She said our name sounds like a porn movie." Mitchell said. Rachel bit her lip to stop her laughter.

"It sort of does." she admitted. Puck laughed. "But you still shouldn't have hit her. You're considerably bigger than her and-" Rachel was cut off by a punch to the stomach and a kick to her leg before she was roughly pushed into a nearby wall. She screamed in pain as she fell to the floor and she vaguely processed shouting before she was eventually picked up.

"I got you, Rach." Puck said. Rachel opened her eyes to see a man yelling at Mitchell.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"The director of Aural Intensity." Finn explained as he stood beside them. The adult walked over.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I just want to go upstairs and sleep." she said.

"Did you hit your head?"

"No." she said.

"Okay, then I think it's okay for you to sleep. Let me know if there's anything I can do." the man said.

"He hit my girlfriend." Rachel mumbled. He raised an eyebrow. "She has a huge bruise."

"I'll be in touch with your director." he promised. Puck nodded and carried Rachel out of the room and to the elevator.

"I'm proud of the way you stood up for Lopez. She hasn't really had a lot of people in her life that would do that." he said. Finn looked at Rachel.

"Dude she's asleep." he said. Puck chuckled.

"Get her room key out of her jacket." he said. Finn got the card and her phone as the elevator reached their floor and they walked to Rachel's room. He opened the door, entered, and held the door so Puck could carry the sleeping diva in before closing the door.

"What happened?" Santana asked as she sat up.

"Rach went downstairs and confronted the guy from Aural Intensity about messing with _'her girl'_ and he hit her. She should have bruises on her stomach, back, and leg. He did all of that before I was able to get to her." Puck said quietly.

"Is she unconscious?"

"No, sleeping. Don't worry, she didn't hit her head." Finn whispered, setting the key and phone down as Puck gently put Rachel on the bed next to Santana.

"I should have been there." Santana whispered. Puck shook his head. "We got into a fight over it. I didn't want her going down there and she slapped me. I kicked her out."

"She didn't mean it." Puck said.

"I know. She just wanted to protect me." Santana whispered, stroking Rachel's cheek. "You guys can go. I'll take care of her."

"Are you okay though?" Finn asked. Santana nodded with a small smile and they walked out of the room.

"I love you so much, Rachel Berry." she whispered, turning on the TV, turning the volume down, and watching as she waited for her girlfriend to wake up.

* * *

><p>Rachel opened her eyes and realized she was back in her and Santana's hotel room. "It's about time." Hearing her girlfriend's voice, she started to roll over. "Don't turn over."<p>

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"I don't think you want the pain."

"Pain?" Rachel questioned. She felt the bed dip, telling that Santana had gotten off the bed, and heard the unmistakable sound of pills rattling before Santana appeared at her side.

"You're gonna be sore. I don't know what we're gonna do about Nationals."

"You can have my parts." Rachel said as she accepted the ibuprofen. Santana smiled as she handed Rachel a glass of water.

"That's sweet, but I'm pretty sore too. Besides, I could never replace _the _Rachel Berry." she said. Rachel chuckled, wincing as she did so. "Thank you, Ray. You shouldn't have gone down there, but thanks nonetheless."

"I wanted to defend your honor." Rachel whispered. Santana blushed as she sat down on the floor, next to the bed.

"You're sweet and if I wasn't sore, I'd be doing the same thing." she said. Rachel smiled.

"I'm sorry for slapping you."

"It's water under the bridge." Santana promised. Rachel nodded.

"I'm not going to let them have this satisfaction. I'm going to perform."

"Rachel, you got thrown into a wall." Rachel shrugged. "I love you for defending me, but you're in no condition to be performing."

"I need this, San." Rachel whispered. Santana took a deep breath. "I need applause to live."

"That is true... If you feel up to it, I can't stop you. But if Finnocence tries to kiss you during _Pretending_ or something, we won't be winning, because I'll be killing him."

"He helped me defend you. I think he's come to terms with our relationship." Rachel said.

"He helped you?"

"He told me that he'd seen you talking to that guy from Aural Intensity at breakfast and if he'd known that he was going to hit you, he would have intervened. He also pointed him out for me and I think he might have gotten a few punches in. I heard something along the lines of _'don't touch rachel or santana'_ but there was so much going on." Santana nodded slowly. "So can I perform?" The cheerleader laughed.

"You're silly." she said, kissing her girlfriend. Rachel grinned.

* * *

><p>Finn and Rachel sang <em>Pretending<em> (Santana didn't have to kill him) and then the group sang _Light Up The World_. The moment their names were called as the National champions, Rachel instantly forgot how sore she was and hugged her girlfriend tightly.

"Baby, you're hurting me." Santana whispered. Rachel bit her lip.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I'm so proud of you." Santana said.

"Likewise, Santana." Rachel said as they exited the stage. They had to pass a disqualified Aural Intensity, including Mitchell.

"Have fun in jail or juvie or whatever." Santana said with a wave as they passed. Rachel laughed.

"You're mean."

"You know it." Satnana said, kissing Rachel softly.


End file.
